Final rehearsal bodes well for Vancouver Olympics flame lighting ceremony

Sun shines for Olympic flame lighting rehearsal

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece — In the wildfire-ravaged birthplace of the ancient Olympics, Greek officials held a final rehearsal Wednesday for the kindling of the flame that will burn at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Standing in front of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, an actress dressed as an ancient priestess used a concave mirror to focus the sun’s rays on a silver torch. After a brief delay, it blossomed into flame.

That flame will serve as a backup if clouds hide the sun at Thursday’s official lighting ceremony in this verdant, riverside sanctuary — despite a formal prayer the High Priestess offers to Apollo, the ancient Greek god of light.

Bad weather disrupted the ceremony for the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, along with the past three Winter Olympics — in Turin in 2006, Salt Lake City in 2002 and Nagano in 1998.

The flame ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Games encountered more serious trouble, when pro-Tibetan protesters unfurled a banner and tried to stop the torch relay.

There will be a strong police presence at Thursday’s lighting — which IOC president Jacques Rogge is scheduled to attend — amid fears animal rights activists might target the Feb. 12-28 Vancouver Games.

The PETA group held a small peaceful protest under the Acropolis in Athens on Wednesday, holding banners against seal hunting in Canada. Canadian officials say they are aware there might be protests, and have discussed the matter with Greek police.

“Anyone who’s going to use the relay to attract media attention to their cause is unfortunate,” said Jim Richards, program director for the relay in Canada. “A protester with a sign is not a threat for us, but someone trying to harm a torchbearer is.”

Dozens of tourists looked on and applauded Wednesday as actress Maria Nafpliotou lit the backup flame, kneeling before the ruins of Hera’s temple.

For Sol Sachs, 72, an American from Woodlands, Texas, and his wife, the event was worth the trip.

“We had meant to come yesterday but took the wrong road and ended up elsewhere,” Sachs said. “This is phenomenal, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Near Pyrgos in the southwestern Peloponnese, Olympia was devastated by massive forest fires that swept through central and southern Greece in 2007, killing 66 people. The lush low vegetation has since regrown. But despite a massive replanting effort last year, the lost forests could take decades to replace.

The first torchbearer to run out of Olympia’s ancient stadium will be Greek giant slalom skier Vassilis Dimitriadis, 31, an Olympic veteran of Nagano, Salt Lake City and Turin.

“I feel deeply honored that my country selected me to carry the flame,” Dimitriadis said Wednesday.

After an eight-day trip through Greece, the flame will be handed over to Canadian officials at the restored ancient Panathenaean Stadium in Athens.

It will be flown to Canada on Oct. 30 for a 28,000-mile journey which organizers say will be the largest national relay.

Over 106 days, the flame will cover the breadth and length of Canada, being flown as far north as the Alert forestry station in Nunavut, which at some 500 miles from the North Pole is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world.

“The Olympic Flame touches so many people,” Richards said. “It’s all the values that we see coming out in the games.”

Although cauldrons were lit during the ancient games, the torch is a modern addition to the Olympics. It made its first appearance during the 1936 Berlin Games.