It’s that time again, every two years another Olympiad graces the world’s stage, with competitors from across the globe performing feats of amazing athleticism.
But, this week’s article is not about them.
Today, we will be looking at the spectacle in the lead up to the Games, which, in its pageantry, draws communities of the host nation together, connecting them in a web to the Olympics’ central hub, its host city, for 16 days.
That spectacle is the Olympic Torch Relay, which allows thousands of people to own a small part of the Olympic experience by being its standard bearer for a short time.
As the congratulatory letter mailed to each torchbearer stated: “Like the athletes who will come together in Calgary…you are about to share an unforgettable experience.”
The Olympic flame is a symbol used to denote continuity between the ancient and modern games. The Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece, several months before the Olympic Games. This ceremony starts the Olympic torch’s journey, which formally ends with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremonies. The flame continues to burn in the cauldron for the duration of the Games, and is only extinguished during the closing ceremony.
Now, before we continue this little story about the first time that the Olympic Flame graced the Nickel Belt with its presence, I would like to say that the Torch Relay holds a special place for my family. My father, Doug Marcon, was among those selected for that all too brief moment (one kilometre’s worth by the Lake Nipissing lookout, in fact) where the Olympic Spirit becomes tangible and, to borrow a line from Lt. McCrae, “The torch; be yours to hold it high.”
On Jan. 8, 1988, thousands of area residents were expected to gather outside Science North in the late afternoon to officially welcome the Olympic torch to Sudbury. It was our opportunity to "share the flame", as the TV commercial jingle sang to us. The torch had been drawing large crowds as it made its way towards Calgary and Sudbury was hoping for much the same.
"We're expecting a good turnout," said Rick Malo, chairman of Sudbury's Olympic Torch Relay Ceremonies committee, prior to the occasion. “We’re gearing up for about 3,000 to 4,000” to cheer on some of the 79 torchbearers covering the Sudbury route,” he said.
Most torchbearers were chosen via a special draw. Relay sponsor Petro Canada issued entry forms allowing all citizens the chance to become one of the people to carry the torch for a kilometre. The organizers, who initially expected to receive 250,000 entries, were inundated with over 6.6 million forms, calling the response a sign that the Olympics had "fired the imagination of Canada.”
Many of those torchbearers spent their time leading up to their time with the torch preparing physically for the demands of both running and carrying the torch. In fact, the organizers specifically sent out a pamphlet to each participant titled “Getting in shape to carry the Olympic Torch” which included workout tips and the interesting tidbit, “The Olympic Torch weighs 1.6 kilograms. This may not sound heavy but imagine carrying a pipe wrench for a kilometre. Remember, the Torch is lit, so you will have to hold it away from your face and body.”
Science North had its very own representative in the Olympic Torch Relay, volunteer John Kennedy. To prepare for the run, he had been running three times a week at the YMCA as well as undertaking a moderate weight training program. Like many others, “I started the minute I got word I was chosen in August," he said.
And, though he considered himself to be fit as a fiddle, Science North officials felt it would be a good idea to have him go through a variety of tests in the Alex Baumann Human Performance Lab to determine his fitness level prior to his participation in the relay. As Jennifer Pink, the Humanosphere manager, said at the time, "He's been doing a lot of preparation for the event and he's interested in seeing how well he's done. We're interested as well because he's the only one of all of us…who is in the Torch Relay.” Kennedy was found to be in excellent physical shape.
On Day 53 of its 88-day, 18,000-kilometre journey across the country, the torch left the City of North Bay in the morning in order to ensure a 4 p.m. arrival in Sudbury.
Torchbearers made their way west on the Kingsway before turning north on Falconbridge Road. The route then shifted to Lasalle Boulevard, Notre Dame Avenue (where the aforementioned John Kennedy carried the torch) and south on Paris Street, before making a brief stop at Science North (expected to be at 6 p.m).
Unfortunately, both Father Time and Mother Nature had something to say about the committee’s plans and could not have been any less co-operative. An hour's delay and a quickly dropping temperature tried (but failed) to dampen the spirit of the crowd that anxiously awaited the arrival of the Olympic Flame. If anything, the crowd seemed to grow as the time ticked by.
The assembled masses spanned all generations partaking in this once-in-a-lifetime event. Snuggly-clad toddlers shepherded by their parents shared space with naturally-oblivious-to-the-cold teenagers and seniors whose long memories could recall the first Olympiads of the 20th century.
Many in the crowd also had skates slung around their necks in readiness for the free party that followed at the adjacent Bell Grove arena.
The ceremony in Sudbury was much more than a fleeting glimpse of the Olympic Flame. It actually began just over a half hour prior. The Master of ceremonies duties were performed by “Jungle” Jim Hunter, a former world-class downhill skier and an original member of the “Crazy Canucks”.
The official Calgary Olympic mascots, Hidy and Howdy, were also on hand, stealing the show from the various local politicians and dignitaries in attendance, while also entertaining the children. As MC, Hunter spent a lot of time as the “straightman" for the zany antics of the Olympic mascots.
As a preliminary to the arrival of the torch, Sudbury MP Doug Frith presented Olympic certificates to several area residents who were cited for outstanding contributions in sports. As well, eight others who "have demonstrated the Olympic spirit and made outstanding contributions to their communities" were awarded gold medallions, supplied by the federal government's “Celebration '88” program. While Sudbury's Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Corps performed throughout, the crowd was encouraged to join in the singing of both the “Olympic Song” and “Come Together in Calgary.”
In the meantime, the torchrunners were marking their circuitous route across the city.
Finally, the assembled mass of people let out a mighty cheer as torchbearer Frank Nadeau arrived carrying the flame through an honour guard of district students and up onto the dais.
Upon arrival, the Torch was passed to “Jungle” Jim, while the gatherers lead a chorus of “O Canada.”
Mayor Peter Wong officially welcomed the torch to the city, the attention was given to the youth of the community, as Andrea Burdeniuk and Duncan MacCallum, both in Grade 5 at Robinson Public School, recited their prize-winning compositions on what the Olympic torch meant to them.
Now, at this point, Sudbury not only shared the flame but it kept a piece of it as well. Mayor Peter Wong used the Olympic Torch to ignite a giant torch at Science North which was planned to burn until the World Junior Track and Field Championships that would be held in Sudbury that July. (More on this giant torch later).
The torch was then quickly passed from hand to hand among the assembled dignitaries, while many in the crowd had torch-shaped candle holders and were invited to light these from the flame. It was then handed to the next torchbearer, Linda Scott, and amid cheers, the torch vanished off in the distance.
Its route then turned right onto Walford Road, where Sudbury's Olympic double gold medallist Alex Baumann (Los Angeles, 1984) was set to take over. As Baumann took his place as torchbearer, the crowd lining both sides of the street cheered.
“Nothing compares to winning a gold medal at the Olympics- but the excitement I felt tonight came pretty close,” said Baumann. “The Summer of the '84 Olympics and the Russian-Canadian hockey game in ‘72 are the only times I've ever seen such excitement in Sudbury.”
As the torch was handed off to him, an elderly woman in the crowd yelled, “Go Alex!”
Baumann answered with a smile and a wave before briefly guiding the torch on its way westward. The relay route out of the city saw it carried down Regent Street South, before following Bouchard Street, Southview Drive, Kelly Lake Road and to Highway 17 West. The torch then proceeded along its Trans Canada route, ending its day in McKerrow.
While thousands of Canadians took part in moving the Olympic Torch across the country to Calgary, there was one Sudbury resident who could say that she had a hand in moving the unlit torch in the opposite direction.
For Gisele Brouillette, the highlight of a mid-October flight from Toronto to Amsterdam was being allowed to handle the torch as it was being moved to Greece to be ignited at the ceremonial flame. "It meant a great deal to us," said Brouillette, as she thanked the airline for parading the torch through the aircraft. Making for a strange twist of fate (and some possible jealousy), Brouillette’s son Richard had had ambitions of being a torchbearer but failed to get an application in before the deadline.
Remember the torch that Mayor Wong lit for the World Junior Championships? Well, an energy crisis of sorts forced the organizers to extinguish the natural-gas-burning flame (provided by INCO) after only a matter of several weeks. The cost of natural gas for all those months (expected to be several thousand dollars) became cost prohibitive very quickly and forced organizers to extinguish the outdoor flame and downsize it into a small miner's lantern inside the science centre’s Alex Baumann Human Performance Lab.
In the February 1988 edition of Maclean’s Magazine, a feature story about the relay made mention of an unexpected commercialism surrounding the games. But, unlike the rampant advertising we come to expect nowadays, this commercialized situation rested “at the sneaker-clad feet of runners who have offered to sell the souvenir tracksuits provided free by the relay sponsor,” specifically mentioning one such person offering theirs for sale for $18,000. However, according to local torchbearers, this was not the case in the Nickel Belt, as the track suits worn by Sudburians were not for sale.
"It's like selling a memory (and) you can't sell a memory," said Tina Pietrandrea.
Torchbearers were told about offers being made for the suit and toques during a briefing session in Sudbury prior to their run, "but I thought it was just their way of trying to tell us how important we were. I couldn't believe people would actually approach people to buy their suits, or that people would actually sell their suits…I think it is really low. It should mean more to them than just the cash value they can get out of it.”
Thomas Stott said he had "heard the rumors" about offers of cash for the suits, but said he wouldn't sell his regardless of the price being offered. "It's not something you can replace. It means more to me than anything I would get from selling it,” he continued.
And, Peter Stankiewicz, said he heard “the offers were going as high as $3,000 and to me that is ridiculous. There is no way that suit is worth $3,000 from a material point of view." He wouldn't sell in any event. "To me it's a collector's item…It's a reminder of the Olympics held right here in Canada.”
Torchbearer Paul Makinen planned to be in Calgary for the closing ceremonies and to show off his pride in his achievement, he said that “I’ll be wearing my track suit all the time."
He added that “when I'm not wearing it in Calgary, it will be under lock and key that's for sure."
While the opening ceremonies for the Calgary Olympics made most Canadians proud, it meant even more than that for those Sudburians who carried the Olympic torch. “It was like I was a part of it," exclaimed Tina Pietrandrea of the opening ceremonies. "It was just like carrying it all over again. When they started to show the people reacting to the whole thing, it was like I was right there beside them."
Tim Mallette recalled that the torch’s entry at the opening ceremonies was a flashback moment for him. “When they showed the torch being brought in. It automatically brought (me) back to that day when we were involved in it. Much of the same feelings went through (my) mind. You just felt so proud. It was incredible."
For Thomas Stott, the opening ceremonies were a truly emotional experience. Stott said he was most moved when the torch arrived in the stadium, “It was nice to feel like you were a part of it. You helped get that torch across the country and played a small part in the whole thing…so that was the part that I appreciated most.”
Stott videotaped the ceremony (as did many, including my father) and safely tucked it away with his tracksuit as his memory of the 1988 Winter Olympics.
When at last the torch entered McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Feb. 13, for the opening ceremonies of the fifteenth Olympic Winter Games, 7,195 Canadians had acted as torchbearers in what was then the longest, coldest and most complex relay ever staged.
Each one of those people had, as the congratulatory certificate given to them stated, “taken a special place in Canadian history as a Torchbearer during the Olympic Torch Relay.”
Mayor Peter Wong wrote to each runner: “You have been able to put your own personal touch to the Winter Olympics - a most notable achievement for anyone.”
Now, thirty-six years later, thank you to all of the torchbearers for sharing the flame with the people all across our nation and keeping that Olympic Spirit with you, even after the flame departed from your hand.
Jason Marcon is a writer and history enthusiast in Greater Sudbury. He runs the Coniston Historical Group and the Sudbury Then and Now Facebook page. Then & Now is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.