Montreal — Flag-waving crowds turned out to cheer the Olympic flame as it made its way through the city Sunday to celebrate the 2004 Games in Athens.
The 60-kilometre tour included four stops where ancient Greek ceremonies were performed in honour of the Games which begin Aug. 13.
Spiros Lambridis, head of the Athens 2004 delegation that is staging relays in Olympic cities around the world, Greek consul George Sapounidis and Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay set the flame in motion at a ceremony outside Olympic Stadium in the city’s east end, the main venue for the 1976 Games.
“This is a symbolic place,” said Tremblay. “The Olympic flame has come back to Montreal.”
Sebastien Lareau, a gold medallist in tennis at the 2000 Games in Sydney, carried the torch up the side of Mount Royal to the massive dome of St. Joseph’s Oratory. His path was lined by spectators waving blue and white Greek flags.
He was greeted by a group of young women dressed in white robes of the priestesses of Athena. One of them handed Lareau an olive branch before they performed a ceremonial dance.
Two toga-clad young men re-enacted a wrestling match after which many in the crowd of about 3,000 sang along as the Greek national anthem was played.
The turnout of the local Greek community to see the Olympic flame was surprisingly strong given that Greece and Russia were playing each other in the European soccer championship Sunday afternoon.
Each of the 120 runners carried the flame about 400 metres.
Tremblay took the lighted torch from Lambridis and placed it in a holder on the wheelchair of the first carrier, George Adamopoulos. He was one of several individuals, including Canadian athletes, who carried the flame on its day-long voyage through 11 city boroughs.
Among the early runners were Montreal Expos coach and former major league pitcher Claude Raymond and 1992 Olympic backstroke gold medallist Mark Tewksbury.
Annie Pelletier, an Olympic bronze medallist in diving in 1996, was also one of the torchbearers.
“It has been eight years since I retired from the Olympic lifestyle, but today when I woke up, I did the same visualizing I did when I was competing,” Pelletier said. “I had goosebumps.”
The last carrier was former sprinter Bruny Surin, a 1996 relay gold medallist, as the relay ended at the Cite des Arts du Cirque in the city’s northeast where Surin grew up.
“I hope this helps the kids around the world to believe that you can be successful in the Olympics without cheating,” Surin said.
Young people were dressed in traditional Greek costume at the send-off ceremony. In a nostalgic touch, city official Andre Lessard wore a gaudy yellow Canadian team track suit from the 1976 Olympics.
Montreal was the 15th stop on 33-city tour on five continents where torch relays are to be held in June and July.
The flame began its trek on March 25 at the Temple of Hera in the Games’ ancient birthplace at Olympia for a tour of Greece.
It then travelled to Sydney, Australia, host of the 2000 Summer Games, on June 4 before stopping in Melbourne, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Delhi, Cairo, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta and New York.
The flame will be in Antwerp, Belgium, on Monday to begin the tour’s European leg.
On July 9, the flame returns to Greece for a final tour of that country before it reaches Athens for the start of the Games on Aug. 13.
Along the route, the flame will travel 75,300 kilometres and be carried by more than 3,600 people.
The flags were not all Greek and Canadian. A group of about 20 protesters from Canada-Tibet Committee held Tibetan flags and signs denouncing the 2008 Games in Beijing. One sign read: Athens Yes, Beijing No.
“We’re here to protest for a free Tibet and for human rights, but also that the Olympics should be more responsible in deciding where the Olympics should be,” said Losang Champa, a Canadian of Tibetan descent.
