The 'rock star' sets off on its northern tour
Olympic torch earns celebrity status as journey continues
Shelley Fralic, Vancouver Sun columnist
Published: Tuesday, November 03, 2009
When you're on tour with a celebrity, perhaps the biggest celebrity in the world at this moment in time, there are so many details to attend to that the logistics require months of planning, an itinerary thick with names and dates and times and dos and don'ts, and, of course, an entourage of spokespeople and bodyguards to keep you safe and on track.
If that's the life of a rock star, then for the next three months it best describes the 2010 Winter Olympics torch as it travels on a 45,000-kilometre rolling party tour across Canada, over tundra, ice packs, boreal forests, mountains, plains, lakes and rivers and the Canadian Shield.
The 2010 torch relay has been planned so brilliantly (and at not inconsiderable cost) that the iconic flame, which sleeps in a miner's lantern by night and fires up those sleek white torches by day, will not only travel by land, sea and air, but by snowmobile, snowboard, surfboard, skis, dogsled and canoe -- in all, about 100 forms of transportation.
Over the course of its 106-day route, it will be within about an hour's drive of 90 per cent of Canada's population, accessibility to regular folks being a key component of its rock star status. Which means that where it sits, where it overnights, where it puts on a show and who gets front-row seats, as well as who looks after it and who gets to carry it and touch it, is as orchestrated and intricate as opening night at the Kirov Ballet.
The torch will be escorted, at times, by as many as a dozen vehicles, including torchbearer shuttles, promotional vehicles, RCMP vans, pilot and command cars and media shuttles, all acting as front and rear guards, and pace-makers, for torchbearers and their escort runners. In the past four days alone, as it made its way through Vancouver Island, the flame has been passed -- 147 hands on the first day -- from Olympians such as Simon Whitfield, Catriona Le May Doan, Silken Laumann and Alexandre Despatie to dozens of so-called ordinary Canadians.
And so it will go, hand to hand, 12,000 torchbearers in all, across northern Canada and back along the 49th parallel, the flame's ancient history and future promise lighting up tiny towns and big cities, greeting admirers and protesters alike on its quick-step path to BC Place Stadium, and that waiting cauldron, next Feb. 12.
In B.C., 266 communities will host the torch, carried by 3,500 torchbearers for 27 days over nearly 10,000 kilometres.
And while it had a glorious start last Friday, it was not without controversy, as protesters on the weekend forced organizers to rejig the route. Accompanied by flame guardians, who are on hand with an "insurance" flame should those slim-jim sticks flame out, there is a moving cabal of Integrated Security Unit officers, as well as local police officers and other officials, ensuring that protesters get to do their thing without compromising the relay.
Protest has long been a part of the Olympic Games, the Beijing Games, for instance, engendering worldwide outrage and staged events to highlight human rights violations in China. Vancouver's Games, and its partners, have been relentlessly hammered by groups such as anti-poverty activists, environmentalists, anarchists and native rights supporters for all manner of transgressions, including the multibillion-dollar price tag in a time of economic downturn. While the debate rages, Canadian torchbearers of all stripes, kitted out in their Olympic gear, including those now-famous red mittens, carry on with their mission, running through the streets of their communities, spurred on by cheering, flag-waving crowds.
![[]](http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/images/footerdots2.gif){kind=small}
