Olympic-sized passion

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This article was published 07/01/2010 (5974 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GIMLI — It was a chance to see the Ólympískur kyndill along with sweetgrass mixed with a lot of skode as the Olympic spirit came to the Interlake on Wednesday.

Thousands of schoolchildren and adults waved flags as 30 torchbearers carried the flame through the Olympic Torch Relay host communities of Gimli, Peguis First Nation and St. Laurent.

Here, at the former capital of New Iceland, 19-year-old Winnipegger Leah Gair sparked her torch with the flame kept burning in a miner’s lantern to begin the relay through the community at 10 a.m.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing to see," said 11-year-old William Favell as he stood with friends watching for the torch.

"This is a big moment," chimed in Adam Seabrook, 13.

Rick and Lisa Mamalygo, standing with their nine-year-old son, Michael, said the boy was thrilled to see the torch — and shaking hands with Premier Greg Selinger was an unexpected bonus.

"We’re just so excited the torch is coming to smaller communities," Rick said.

"This is cool," Michael said.

According to Icelandic speakers in the know, the Icelandic translation of Olympic torch is Ólympískur kyndill.

Gair met up a few hundred metres away from the start to briefly touch torches and trade the flame with the second relay runner: Selinger.

"When you’re No. 2 (torch runner) you try harder," quipped Selinger.

"This is a lot of fun."

Gimli resident Millard Barteaux took the torch from the waterfront through the streets to the Viking statue — albeit having to switch to a stand-in torch halfway.

"It nearly went out," Barteaux said, noting that relay officials quickly brought him the temporary torch to make sure the flame didn’t die out during his watch.

"It was great to do it — I think I knew everybody cheering me on. But it was too fast."

Roughly half an hour after the start of the relay, the torches were extinguished and the flame was back in the mining lantern on its way to Peguis.

There, at the aboriginal community about 145 kilometres north of Winnipeg, a resident of Peguis said he didn’t know any Ojibwa word for torch, but he said the word for fire is skode.

The odour of sweetgrass, accompanied by the beating of drums, greeted the Olympic torch at Peguis as a trio of relay runners carried it to a temporary stage set up outside the local mall and a nearby senior citizens centre.

Local residents Kiinnan French and Kyle Prince — and Gimli resident Nicole Kerbrat — were the torch runners.

Both French, 15, and Prince, 17, were chosen because of their academic and community accomplishments.

"This was phenomenal," Prince said.

"I was so excited and I was scared to drop it."

Meanwhile, expected protests during the torch run targeting the controversy over pay packets for the chief and band council and the community’s vote to accept a multimillion-dollar land compensation agreement, failed to materialize.

"It’s not the place to do it, and our people understand," Chief Glenn Hudson said about the protests.

"We’re very thankful we are one of the First Nations in the province to receive the torch run."

Today, the torch leaves Winnipeg, bound for Winkler and Portage la Prairie.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

 

They held it high

Day 69 — The Interlake (Torchbearer names were subject to change)

Leah Gair

Greg Selinger

Ray Carter

Millard Barteaux

Robin Armstrong

Brandon Stamm

Twylla Stamm

Shane Haney

Gio Wickett

Cailyn Cheasley

Shannon Bailey

Larissa Best

Janelle Flaten

Lynn Kolba

Meaghan Sternat

Rachel Epp

Kyle Norquay

Ashley Newman

Ryan Wehrle

Michelle Stamm

Braedon Borschawa

Brandon Kopochinski

Terina Wickett

Tim Ireland

Kiinnan Stevenson-French

Kyle Prince

Nicole Kerbrat

Louis Dauphinais

Edward Kennedy

Jean Louis Carrière