Vancouver 2010 Looks to Engage Canadian Communities in the Olympic Torch Relay

When the Olympic Torch threads its way through Canadian cities and towns, it delivers the message that big dreams can be realized, no matter where you’re from, and whatever your goal is in life. It inspires belief. 

For Calgary’s 1988 Olympic Torch Relay, Dr. Suzette Cooke (née Smith) ran part of the leg from Sparwood, British Columbia, across the provincial divide to Alberta. She had recently competed in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Summer Games as a volleyball player, but that experience couldn’t compete with the emotion of connecting with an entire Canadian community, including hundreds of children. Local schools were let out. Parents with strollers looked on. Cooke was followed by a police motorcade while a flurry of Canadian flags guided her path. All those people had braved brutally cold temperatures to catch a glimpse of the flame.

Igniting dreams

“You get the sense of the kids being very much a part of this — kids starting to become aware of the Olympics, what it means, and this dream that people have for reaching a certain level in sport,” said Cooke. “So to me, that was the most important part of it. To think about what they were dreaming about and the hope that they would have for their own dreams.”

At the time of the Calgary 1988 relay, Cooke, a native of Calgary, was transitioning from the life of an athlete to the life of a coach, student and university professor. Running with the Olympic Flame was one of the ways she could give back to the world of amateur sport.

“I think every athlete at that level has a sense of inspiring others to reach that level. They ask themselves, ‘How can I pass something on or how can I give back?’” said Cooke. “You realize you are part of a cycle. You’re not at the beginning or the end. Somehow you’re supposed to give something back.”

Stories like Cooke’s inspire the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) to touch as many Canadians as possible during the Olympic Torch Relay. With that mission in mind, VANOC has been in regular dialogue with the federal, provincial and territorial governments since fall 2007.

Planning for the Olympic Torch Relay

VANOC is now entering into discussions with up to 200 municipal governments regarding regional celebrations across Canada. It’s an important step in the process to ensure that a maximum number of Canadians will experience the Olympic Torch Relay.

“For 100 days, during the largest continuous celebration our country has ever seen, the Olympic Flame will travel from coast to coast to coast, spreading a message of peace, friendship and respect,” said John Furlong, VANOC Chief Executive Officer.

Will the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay come to your hometown?

While the communities on the relay route won’t be unveiled until later this year, the route will be comprised of approximately 1,000 communities. Additionally, some 200 of these select communities along the relay route will be offered the chance to host one of two daily celebrations. The celebrations, at midday and in the evening, will be a gathering point for the host municipality and neighbouring communities to highlight the people, history and personality of the region while celebrating Canada’s Games.

While not every city and town will have the opportunity to host the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, VANOC is committed to find as many means as possible to share the relay with Canadians through television coverage and interactive content on vancouver2010.com.

“Our goal is to finalize a relay plan that will bring the Olympic Flame to as many Canadians as possible through the overall route and the daily celebrations along the way,” added Furlong. “Our challenge now is to finalize the route with not only the daily celebration communities but also the hundreds of other locales Canadians call home.”

Also this year, VANOC plans to share details on how Canadians can apply to become one of 12,000 torchbearers through programs operated by VANOC and Torch Relay Presenting Partners, Coca-Cola and RBC. In 2010 the Olympic Flame will make a historic 35,000-kilometre, 100-day journey to connect Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

In addition to the Olympic Rings, the Olympic Flame is one of the most universally recognized symbols of the Games. That’s what makes the Torch Relay a beacon of the arrival of the Games. The journey of the flame will culminate at BC Place on February 12, 2010 with the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron, signaling the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

As is true for athletes competing in the Games, the journey to the Olympic and Paralympic Games is as important as the sporting events that unfold.

 

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Learn about the 2010 Paralympic Torch Relay.