Orillia - So where were the homegrown torchbearers on Dec. 30?
They sure weren’t in Orillia and that was a crying shame.
Since the Olympic Torch Relay sprinted its way through the Sunshine City, any number of people have stopped me and asked the same question:
“Hey Mike did anyone from Orillia actually carry the torch through the downtown?”
I had to admit there were no local taxpayers running with the torch. Then I had to try and explain the obvious oversight. Not easy.
The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, RBC Securities and Coca-Cola had full control of the selection of torchbearers, leaving most of communities all but left out of the selection process.
Mind you, not every community was in the same boat. Well-known and respected Midland Police Service member Sgt. Doug Geffros lit the flame in Midland, while Huntsville native son and veteran figure skating coach Doug Leigh carried the flame in his hometown.
Heck, even singer Shania Twain jetted all the way from Switzerland to sprint the flame up the main street of Timmins in temperatures cold enough to stop a polar bear in his tracks.
If you were willing to do some research on the Internet, you could find Orillia and area residents running with the torch – just not in Orillia.
Runner Rick Ball carried the flame through Base Borden, while Special Olympian Stephen Graham ran it in Gravenhurst.
Coldwater resident Shane Martin ran the torch through Elmvale.
Afterwards, they all indicated how excited and proud they were to participate in the relay, but imagine how much better a spectacle it would have been had they been carrying it in their own backyard.
The biggest crime was that Orillia’s Walter Henry, a three-time Olympian, didn’t get a chance to run with the flame.
Goodness knows Walter’s friends tried everything short of moose-calling imitations to try and get him into the mix of nine who relayed the torch through the city.
Yet he wasn’t as fortunate as the various media types who were specially selected by the corporate sponsors to carry the flame 300 metres.
I wonder how many of them dedicated years of their lives to athletics, sacrificing everything imaginable.
I spoke briefly to Walter and while he was disappointed by not getting to run with the Olympic flame, he took the episode in stride.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” he said.
Don’t get me wrong, it was so heart-warming to see so many people crowded around the historic Front Street train station on such a bitterly cold day, to see a runner pass by with a torch bearing a small flickering flame.
It was one of those moments locals will remember.
It’s just too bad 99.999 per cent of the people in Orillia had no idea who the nine were carrying the actual flame.
But that’s what happens when the corporate world takes over an international event.
With years to plan the torch route and map out all the logistics, you’d have thought they would have tried to make the Olympic Torch Relay reflect each community it passed through.
At least we were better off than the poor people who live between Huntsville and North Bay.
The only sight they got of the flame was when it was tucked into a van, motoring its way up Highway 11.
At least 25 minutes in Orillia was better than no minutes at all.
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