OLYMPIA, Greece: The seconds felt like minutes for the 100 dignitaries who witnessed the Olympic flame lighting ceremony at the Temple of Hera.
Federal minister of state for the Olympics Gary Lunn stood beside Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos while Athens actress Maria Nafpliotou manipulated a parabolic mirror to produce a flame from the sun.
"You could hear him saying ‘c'mon Apollo, c'mon Apollo,’" Lunn said, referring to the Greek sun god.
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell’s thoughts turned to his friend, VANOC chairman Jack Poole who is battling cancer.
"I was sitting there waiting for it to light, and to be candid, I closed my eyes and I thought about Jack and Darlene (Poole) and wished they were there, and opened my eyes and, whoosh, there it was," Campbell said.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who is promoting the 2010 Games host city with the new Green Capital slogan, was delighted to witness the cleanest combustion on earth.
"When I heard ‘solar collector,’ yeah, the greenest Games, here we go!” Robertson said. “From Greece, itself."
No official time was announced, but some of the 100 dignitaries who witnessed the first half of the ceremony said it was comparable to the two minutes and 11 seconds during the Wednesday rehearsal. The lighting happened at 12:39 p.m. local time and was announced three minutes later with the playing of a flute over a mobile public address system in the nearby stadium.
Greek slalom skier Vassilis Dimitriadis carried the flame out of the stadium with the white Vancouver 2010 torch. A relay around Greece ends Oct. 29. The flame arrives Oct. 30 in Victoria for a 45,000 kilometre journey that ends in the Feb. 12 opening ceremony in Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium.
