news Victoria carries the torch for Olympics

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Today, Victoria carries the torch for Olympics; relay starts this morning at legislature

The torch starts here.



This morning at 7:15 pst, a Canadian Forces Polaris airplane bearing the Olympic flame will touch down on the tarmac at Victoria International Airport.

The landing marks the beginning of an epic 45,000-kilometre journey that will take the flame from the front lawn of the legislature across the country and back for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Feb. 12.

Two Olympians from the Island, triathlete Simon Whitfield and rower Silken Laumann, will be among the first group of torchbearers, the Times Colonist has learned. Also involved are speedskater Catriona Le May Doan and diver Alexandre Despatie.

The capital region will host two days of celebrations before the torch relay travels up the Malahat through Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Tofino, Courtenay, Comox and Campbell River on Sunday and Monday.

On Monday, the flame leaves the Island for the Queen Charlottes and the rest of Canada. It returns to the Island at Port Hardy Feb. 2, before crossing to the mainland for the start of the Games. The journey is the longest national relay in Olympic history.

Yesterday, the Olympic flame was transferred to Canadian hands in Athens in Panathenian Stadium, where the modern Olympics began 103 years ago.

As several hundred people looked on, including Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean and Greek President Karolos Papoulias, Ontario-born Niki Georgiadou, a Greek-Canadian figure skater, carried the torch into the stadium and lit a final cauldron to mark the end of an eight-day relay in Greece.

The cauldron was used to light a Vancouver torch that was then handed by Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos to Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee chief executive John Furlong.

The torch was used to light a miner's lantern that will carry the flame to Victoria today.

Furlong acknowledged many people, including Jack Poole, the former Vanoc chairman who died last week of cancer. "Today we accept the Olympic flame with humility and respect and with joy," he said.

Today, the flame arrives in downtown Victoria about 9:30 a.m., carried across the Inner Harbour in canoes paddled by members of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations. There will be a procession toward a stage at the legislature, where a welcome ceremony will take place. Then at 10:40 a.m., the first torchbearer will carry the flame up Government Street, starting a daylong circuit through eight municipalities.

The flame returns to the legislature about 7:30 p.m. It will join a celebration that begins at the legislature at 5:30 p.m., with entertainers such as Daniel Lapp, Marc Atkinson, Ken Lavigne, members of the Victoria Symphony, and hundreds of First Nations drummers and dancers.

Sign-carrying protesters are expected to line the torch route, while hundreds more are expected at an anti-Olympic event organizers are calling the Five-Ring Circus Anti-Olympics Festival at Centennial Square starting at 2 p.m.

- Follow the torch online at timescolonist