Olympic flame on Canadian soil; relay begins
Posted October 30, 2009 11:10 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
History in Victoria — the plane carrying the flame for the 2010 Olympic Games has landed in the provincial capital. Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson had the honour of carrying the flame in a miner’s lantern out of the Canadian Military jet and placed it on the tarmac Friday morning.
Following a brief ceremony the lantern will travel by canoe to Victoria’s Inner Harbour where it’s expected thousands will crowd the lawn in front of the Legislature to watch the lighting of the Community Cauldron and then the departure of the first torchbearer — whose identity is being kept a secret until the final moment.
It will kick off the longest domestic torch relay in history – involving up to 12,000 torch bearers who will bring the flame across the nation. The relay will go for 106 days and cover 45,000 kilometres before ending in Vancouver to start the Games February 12th.
News1130 spoke with some of the runners who have the honour of carrying the Olympic flame. Jason Mackay got his inspiration by word-of-mouth. “A really good friend of mine who ran with the torch during the Atlanta Olympics, when he told me about his experience, he was passionate about it and so excited that it really got me excited to want to be a part of it.”
Neil Harbun is the “First Coca-Cola Torchbearer,” he says he’s trying to remain calm as he gets set to carry the torch. “My first piece of advice was ‘Don’t screw up,’ ‘Try not to cry like a little baby.’ Actually when I was hearing the stories from previous torch bearers they were saying when they were waiting for their chance to run the torch they were looking at grown men balling their eyes out because the moment was very emotionally powerful for them.” Harbun was born on January 11th 1988 and just 50 hours after giving birth, his mother carried the Olympic Torch through Wabigoon, Ontario.
Being the eighth out of 12,000 torchbearers is something very special to Chris Kantowicz, even the idea of taking his place in Olympic history doesn’t seem quite real just yet. “I keep trying to picture what the heck it would be like and I really don’t think I’m going to figure it out until I get there but I don’t know. We’ll see what running the rain in Victoria feels like, but I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be fairly special.”
News1130 is the official radio sponsor of the 2010 Games
