VANOC is bending its rules to allow California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger run with the Olympic flame on Friday.
VANOC torch relay manuals obtained under Freedom of Information from the City of Vancouver say sitting politicians cannot participate in the relay.
“This policy is not an IOC policy,” said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge. “Who runs with the torch relay is a matter for the organizing committee.”
Mayor Gregor Robertson carried a miner’s lamp containing the flame off a Canadian military flight from Athens when it landed in Victoria on Oct. 30. Neither Robertson nor B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell have been announced as torchbearers, however.
Schwarzenegger admitted to using steroids during his bodybuilding career, but that was before the IOC’s strict anti-doping rules came into effect.
