Warm glow of Olympic torch on cold day

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This article was published 06/01/2010 (5981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STEINBACH — Several hundred people gathered in the foot-stamping cold to watch Lennie Plett carry the Olympic flame into Sobeys parking lot Tuesday morning.

It was a pure made-in-Manitoba moment.

Babies were bundled up until only their shiny eyes showed, grandmothers wore maple leaf stickers on their cheeks and classes of school kids warmed their feet near wood-burning fire pits. Snow fell lightly and men tucked their clenched hands into their armpits to stave off frostbite.

If you’d tossed in a skating rink and some maple syrup you’d have filled all the requirements of a Norman Rockwell painting.

We need this, that sense that athleticism can be pure and that we’re proud to be Canadians. We’re flawed and divided as a nation but we can unite to support our athletes.

Despite all the Tigers who stupidly tie ropes around their necks and jump off their pedestals, for the greedy and the selfish who take their talent and the fans’ money for granted, we will still wait hours in the cold to share the Olympic spirit.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the first thing about bobsleigh or skeleton. Our athletes are competing on home ground. We’re cheering for them.

You may be cynical now but deep down inside you remember how it felt to watch the Canada-Russia game or how proud you were when Cindy Klassen won her medals. Even if we just care that we don’t get skunked in the medals race, we care.

This is something most of us can’t imagine doing. We lack the talent and the discipline to pursue an Olympic dream.

The Games are crassly commercial, of course, and that’s how the bills are paid when governments can’t or won’t pay their amateur athletes enough to train.

That frozen Sobeys parking lot was a tribute to Coke and its mega-millions. This is how we put athletes on the podium.

Children lined up for free limited edition Olympic Coke bottles. Men and women waved Coke pennants. You could play Coke games.

The staff were a cheerful, logoed group of young people who have been taking this show on the road since the torch arrived in Canada.

Say hello to the right Coke employee and she’ll offer to let you hold the torch.

It weighs less than you’d expect.

It’s a mere three-and-half pounds, a cylinder that burns for just 12 minutes. Before that time is up, the next torch has to be lit.

Even the most indifferent Olympics viewer has to be moved, in the same way the Grey Cup or the Stanley Cup evoke feelings of awe and passion in diehard fans.

This is as close as 99 per cent of us will get.

It’s not the only torch, of course. There are 12,000 of them. The torchbearers can buy theirs for $350.

Jayne Dear’s family organized a 50/50 draw so her brother could buy his relay torch.

"It’s a once in a lifetime thing," she said. "It’s a lot of money but really, we had to do it."

Patrick Gordon was in the parking lot with his children, Paige, 6, and Dylan, 9. The little girl was wearing a cardboard sign declaring to be proud of her daddy.

He bought his, too.

Lindsay and James Schroeder brought Owen, 3, to see the torch. Their boy won’t remember he was there but his mom says that doesn’t matter.

"I just thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing," she said. "It’s a part of history, a part of Canada."

When Plett and his torch reached the stage, after perfunctory remarks from politicians, the national anthem was sung by Cindy Klassen. And in that fine and wonderful moment, we were one.

The handle of the torch is inscribed.

"With glowing hearts," it reads.

Tuesday morning, that’s what was keeping people warm.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca