OLYMPICS: Which way is better to light the final Olympic flame – 1996 Atlanta and torchbearer Muhammad Ali or Gretzky at 2010 Vancouver games?
February 13, 2010 by Richard Budman ·
(HoundsTV) Talk about blowing it in Vancouver.
That is, the final Olympic torch lighting.
We know our Canadian athletes will hold up far better under the pressure of Olympic competition then these Opening Gala organizers did in Vancouver.
I was sitting with friends watching the 2010 Opening Ceremonies when like the rest of Canada’s largest ever television audience – a sense of horror overcame me as it became clear something was malfunctioning with lighting the final flame. What if they couldn’t get the thing lit? The final torchbearers – Rick Hansen, Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene, and The Great One just seemed to stand around rather dumbstruck.
And who designed these huge arms of this Olympic cauldron? Did nobody step back and suspect the big picture just might become ripe for ridicule?
Amid this train wreck of a final torch lighting in Vancouver – my friends and I began to think back to some of the more memorable torch lightings from Olympics past.
And one immediately came to mind. Muhammad Ali in 1996 from Atlanta. No big fancy designed sculptures and hydraulic arm thingees. Just a final Olympic flame which Ali ignited.
Simple. Intimate.
It’s what they should have done with Gretzky in Vancouver. It would have made a far more memorable final flame lighting.
And if they have kept it more simple there wouldn’t have been the chance for the mechanical screw-up there was – witnessed by about a billion people. Nice, eh?
What’s that good, old mantra… KISS? The end of the Olympic torch relay and lighting of the final flame in Canada would have been a much more special moment if the Games organizers just would have considered it.
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Muhammad Ali lighting the Torch in Atlanta was a beautiful thing. Vancouver had a nice opening but they should have had one person light the last torch inside BCE place.