Reprinted by permission from the Lake Placid News

Friday, Dec. 28 Lake Placid News

THE FLAME STILL BURNS


This weekend, the Olympic Village rededicates its own 1980 Flame and salutes the 2002 Olympic Torch on its way to Salt Lake City

LEE MANCHESTER - News Staff Writer

LAKE PLACID ; This will be a unique, unforgettable weekend in the Olympic Village.

The 2002 Olympic Torch will pass through Lake Placid on Saturday accompanied by festivities and ceremonies to celebrate and honor the Olympic ideal. And a cohort of the 52 men and women who carried the Flame in the 1980 Olympic Torch Relay from Langley AFB to Lake Placid will reunite for the first time in over a decade as Lake Placids own Olympic Flame Tower is rededicated Friday night.

Placid's Flame is restored

The first test of the months of preparations organizers have put into planning for this weekend's Olympic Torch Relay came last Wednesday, Dec. 19, at the North Elba Show Grounds. Dennis Ryan, who broadcast the 1980 Winter Games on radio station WIRD, had taken charge of restoring the three-legged tower and burner cauldron used to host the Olympic Flame nearly 22 years ago.

The original liquid propane burner used in 1980, which had been dug out of the mud and rebuilt by a North Elba Parks Department crew, was reinstalled in the cauldron last month by Ryan and local firefighter Al Goff using a Lake Placid hook-and-ladder truck. After a new fuel line was run up one of the tower's legs, two 500-gallon LP gas tanks were placed and filled by AmeriGas.

All that was left to do then was for Ryan to place three pyrotechnic charges on the burner – the same kind of charges used to light the rockets that carry the space shuttle into orbit around the Earth.

Ken Foster of AmeriGas turned the regulator on the gas tanks, releasing fuel into the lines. After a few seconds, Ryan hit the button to set off his starter charges, and "poof! " the 1980 Olympic Flame roared back to life, ready for rededication ceremonies scheduled for Friday night at 6 p.m. at the North Elba Show Grounds on Cascade Road, Route 73, across from the twin ski jump towers.

The public is invited to witness the inspiring ceremony that's planned for Friday night at 6 p.m., as well as the reception that will be held for the 1980 Torchbearer following the rededication. The reception will be hosted by the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum, located in the ground floor of the Olympic Center. The fete will start on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The 1980 Olympic Flame will remain lit throughout the weekend and into New Year's Day 2002.

1980 Torchbearers return

Between 18 and 20 of the 52 runners chosen to relay the Olympic Flame from a U.S. Air Force Base in Virginia to Lake Placid in 1980 will be present for Friday night's rededication ceremonies. Those amateur runners: 26 men, 26 women – were chosen to represent the 50 American states, the District of Columbia and Lake Placid as they carried the Flame that symbolized the Olympic ideal.

That Flame opened a Winter Games no one would forget -- Games that saw Eric Heiden take five gold medals for speedskating, and Games that witnessed the spectacular "Miracle on Ice" victory of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team over the imposing, almost-unbeatable Soviet squad.

As unforgettable as were the 1980 Winter Games, neither will the 1980 Torchbearers ever forget their experience carrying the Flame that opened those Games.

Chris Ortloff, now a New York assemblyman representing the Plattsburgh district, was the director of ceremonies for the 1980 Olympics. In that role he worked closely with the Torchbearers, and he has kept in touch with them ever since.

The 49 surviving 1980 Torchbearers are still a very, very close-knit group, said Ortloff in an April interview. They publish a yearly newsletter to update one another on the progress of their lives, gather periodically for reunions, even help bury those of their members who pass on.

"They're still some of the Olympic movement's biggest supporters, too," Ortloff said. "If we were to ask them to help in mounting a campaign for another Winter Game in Lake Placid, they'd all sign on in a second."

50 chosen to bear the 2002 Torch here

The day after the 1980 Olympic Flame is rededicated at the Show Grounds outside Lake Placid, a whole new batch of about 50 Torchbearers will be initiated in the 2002 Winter Olympic Torch Relay. Each runner will carry the 2002 Torch about a fifth of a mile as it passes from Mount Van Hoevenberg to the Intervale ski jump and around Mirror Lake before arriving at the Speedskating Oval at about 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Bearers of the 2002 Olympic Flame were chosen this summer on the basis of four criteria:
* They inspire others to greater achievement;
* They have been a source of inspiration for their community;
* They embody the inspirational spirit of the Olympic movement; and
* They motivate others by encountering and overcoming adversity.

David Wenn, founder of Lake Placid's National Sports Academy, is one of the Olympic Village's new Torchbearers. Opened in 1977, NSA selects students not for their ability to pay, but for their dedication to sport. Many of the school's alumni have gone on to represent the United States in both national and international competition. The school boasts seven Olympians among its graduates.

Another of the new Torchbearers is Bob Allen, who not only was president of the N.Y. State Amateur Hockey Association for more than 20 years and a member of the board of USA Hockey, but served on the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee as well.

Allen was nominated by his daughter, Debbie Modrovsky, who will also run in the 2002 relay here. "I nominated my father last May because he has done so much for amateur hockey and the Olympics," she said. "My dad has been involved in promoting hockey my whole life, and most of his. I wanted to honor him for what he has done for the sport and for the community.

"Based on what I wrote about my father, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee selected both of us to run as an inspirational pair," Modrovsky said. "I am absolutely thrilled."

Wenn, Allen, Modrovsky and about 47 others will carry the 2002 Olympic Torch in a relay through Lake Placid on Saturday, Dec. 29, starting at about 4 p.m.

Placid trail of the 2002 Torch

The flame carried in the 2002 Olympic Torch was kindled by the rays of the sun on Nov. 19 at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. It was carried by airliner from Greece, touching down in Atlanta on Dec. 4. Since then it has traveled up the eastern seaboard through our nation's political and cultural capitals, Washington and New York City.

On Friday, Dec. 28, the Torch will travel through Vermont, resting overnight in Burlington before making its way on Saturday across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh. From there the Torch caravan will travel down the Northway, cutting off at Keeseville for a trip down Route 9N through Au Sable Forks, Jay and Upper Jay to Keene, where it will turn northwestward on Route 73 for its final jog to Lake Placid.

At about 3:45 p.m. the caravan will arrive at Mount Van Hoevenberg (which ORDA has inexplicably taken to calling the Verizon Sports Complex). The Lake Placid Relay will begin when the Olympic Flame is carried down the bobsled track by a four-man crew to the first Torchbearer, Sue Ortloff Cameron, who will be waiting to light her Torch and begin her run toward the Intervale ski jump towers.

The Torch will arrive at the jumps at about 5:15 p.m. Lake Placid's Casey Colby, a 1998 Olympian, will jump with the Torch down the 90-meter hill. Another runner will take the Flame from there, headed across Cascade Road to the North Elba Show Grounds.

At about 5:40 p.m., the 2002 Torch will be greeted by the reunited 1980 Torchbearers at the Show Grounds, the site of the Opening Ceremonies Stadium used 22 years ago to initiate the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid.

From there the Torch will be relayed up Old Military Road, where it will take a turn around the U.S. Olympic Training Center and the United States Luge Association offices at about 5:55 p.m. before returning to Route 73.

The Torch will be carried up Mill Hill through the Lake Placid Club grounds and around Mirror Lake before turning onto Main Street and passing in front of the Olympic Center, where it will be brought at last to the main stage on the Speedskating Oval at about 7 p.m. for the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron.

Activities on the Oval

While the 2002 Olympic Torch makes its way from the winter sports complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg to the Olympic Speedskating Oval on Main Street, an array of free, family oriented activities will be offered on the Oval.

New York's Olympic Regional Development Authority has plenty of experience at creating opportunities for non-athletes to play "Olympian For A Day," and that experience will be put to good use on the Oval on Saturday.

Greg Borzilleri, ORDA's director of sports development, described some of the activities, planned with the cooperation of the United States Luge Association, Ironman USA, the U.S. Bobsled Federation and the U.S. Canoe & Kayak Team, all based here in Lake Placid.

"The focus will be on kids 5 and up," Borzilleri said, "though adults can participate too." At the registration tent, an eight-seat virtual reality ride created by Dave Heim will give visitors a feel for winter sliding sports like bob, luge and skeleton.

"And just outside the tent, we'll have a hockey shot set up," said Borzilleri. "You'll be able to test your skill."

The big activity on the Oval, though, is the Olympic Obstacle Course, where two-person teams will experience rides on luge, skeleton and bobsleds, kayaks and wind-trainer bikes before taking a short sprint across a finish line.

"The obstacle course won't be timed," Borzilleri added. "It's not supposed to be a competitive thing; it's just for fun."

In addition to the obstacle course, the virtual reality ride, several interactive displays, and the food and beverages being sold, about two-thirds of the speedskating track on the Oval will be open for skating on Saturday, and ORDA will be renting skates at no charge all afternoon.

While all these activities are taking place, Olympic enthusiasts will be able to watch the progress of the Torch toward the Oval on "Big Mo," a huge 9-by-12-foot LED screen.

Guests will also be able to have their photographs taken all afternoon on stage with the Olympic Flame Cauldron. The digital photographs will be printed within seconds so that visitors can take them home as mementos.

The interactive pavilion will open at 4 p.m. It's scheduled to close at 6:15 p.m. so that its operation doesn't interfere with the beginning of the Torch Relay ceremony.

"We have about 40 volunteers lined up to help run all these activities," Borzilleri said. "When the activities close, the volunteers will form a corridor with raised glow sticks for the final runner coming up to light the cauldron on the stage."

The Olympic Flame Cauldron lighting ceremony is scheduled for about 7 p.m.

After that, everyone is encouraged to head next door to the Olympic Center, where the annual Coronation Ice Spectacular will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets for the show, starring Linda Fratianne and Snoopy, will cost $19.50 and $15.

Torch in perspective

The 1980 Olympic Torch Relay, with 52 runners racing on a shoestring budget, was the first American Torch relay. The difference between that relay and the trek of the Salt Lake Torch is emblematic of some of the changes that have taken place in the Olympic movement over the last 22 years.

Compared with the millions of dollars spent this year by the relay's commercial sponsors, Coca-Cola and Chevrolet, and the 11,500 runners chosen to carry the Torch for 65 days over 13,500 miles of road from Atlanta to Salt Lake, the LakePlacid relay seems like the epitome of the old, amateur ideal of the Olympics.

Believe it or not, this year's Olympic Torch Relay is actually scaled down, in some respects, from a couple of previous relays:
* The Sydney Torch Relay last year took runners on a 120-day journey along a 37,500-mile route through 14 countries.
* The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had the most Torchbearers: 101,839.
* Before Sydney, the Tokyo Games also held the record for carrying the Torch through the most countries: 13.
* Before Sydney, the L.A. and Atlanta Games had tied for the longest relay at 84 days.

From Lake Placid, the 2002 Olympic Torch will travel onward, ever onward toward Salt Lake City and the Winter Games. As soon as festivities wind up here in the Olympic Village on Saturday night, the Torch Relay crew will collapse the stage, pack up their exhibits and drive their caravan down to Lake George, where they will begin all over again on Sunday. Forty days and 40 nights later, the Torch will arrive at Salt Lake's Olympic Stadium where, on Feb. 8, the final runner in the 2-1/2-month-long relay will light the Flame that will mark the opening of this year's Games. The Salt Lake Flame will stay lit for 16 days until the Winter Games close on Feb. 24.