Flame for 2010 Winter Games lands in Canada for start of relay covering nearly 28,000 miles

Flame for 2010 Games lands for start of relay

VICTORIA, British Columbia — The flame for the 2010 Olympics has arrived in Canada for the beginning of a journey that will be the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson carried the flame, burning in a miner’s lantern, out of the aircraft that arrived Friday from Greece, where the flame was lit by the rays of the sun on the site of the ancient games.

The torch will relay will cover nearly 28,000 miles, reaching the most extreme corners of the country, to Alert in the North and L’Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland in the east. It will pass through more than 1,000 communities and be carried by 12,000 torchbearers on a journey by plane, boat, bike, dogsled, skateboard and other modes of transportation.