CALGARY – The inner city Calgary community of Renfrew is familiar territory to Audrey Forzani. A stone’s throw down the hill is Bridgeland, the community where her parents arrived from Italy a century ago, and became one of the founding families of the longtime Italian neighbourhood. It’s also where she and her late husband John raised their three boys, all of whom went on to play for the Canadian Football League and later became prominent businessmen and philanthropists.
On Monday morning, Forzani returned to her old stomping grounds in a wheelchair, her mode of transportation for the past several years. But while the years have slowed down the 95-year-old matriarch in some ways, she proved that mischievous humour isn’t the sole domain of the young. “I took seven sleeping pills,” she said to a chorus of laughter from family and spectators gathered around. “That’s why I’m so fresh and perky today.”
The eldest of the entire criss-cross-country tour of 12,000 torchbearers over the 106-day Olympic Torch Relay, Forzani was excited as a kid about her run in the moments before the torchbearer coming her way lit the torch affixed to a pole on her wheelchair. “I can’t believe how good I feel,” she said, letting out a “Hooray!” in between breaths. “I’m so very fortunate to be a Canadian, and this is a celebration of Canada.”
Further up the street, Elisabeth Langeland and Carolynne Bouey-Shank were feeling similarly young at heart. “At the ’88 Olympics, I had my four-year-old son on my shoulders,” she said. “Now, he’s a teacher at the school across the street.” Langeland said the run through Calgary en route to Vancouver “brought back a lot of warm memories from the last time it came through town.”
When it made its last appearance here, Calgary was a city of around 650,000. In 2010, there are more than a million people in the city and area, and the city’s pretty well divided into three camps: the people who love to reminisce about the ’88 Winter Olympics, the people who are tired of this long-ago moment of glory and those who don’t give it a moment’s thought. On Monday, though, it was clear that there were enough in the first camp to bring people out by the thousands as it made its way through the city and such outlying communities as Chestermere and the City of Airdrie, along the way celebrating both local and international V.I.P.’s, and regular folks making a difference. They showed up on downtown street corners at morning rush hour in their ’88 volunteer jackets, holding their ’88 candle holders; a few even held Stampede-style pancake breakfasts for their neighbours as the torch passed on their front doorsteps.
At 7 a.m., Lois Mitchell – also known as Mrs. Calgary, for her volunteer work in sport and just about every other community cause – did the flame “kiss” (the lighting of one torch from another by touching the top tips together) to Remu Amal, a businesswoman and mother of two young children active in the local Muslim community.
“I’m just so happy for Lois today, she really deserves to be recognized,” says friend Haley Wickenheiser, the three-time Olympic medalist heading to her fourth Olympics as a star on the women’s national hockey team. “She’s done so much for sport in this country, and has a hand in so many things.”
At the Olympic Oval, more than 6,000 Canadian-flag-waving, cheering fans showed up to see speed skater Cindy Klassen, the most decorated Olympian in Canadian history, skate behind former Olympic medalist – and now mother of three – Susan Auch as she torch-skated a lap around the ’88 Olympic speed skating venue and current training spot for the national team.
In northwest Calgary, many didn’t know that the tiny blond torchbearer going past them was an American guest of the city, a world-class gymnast and one of the darlings of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. But it wasn’t until a pre-teen yelled out “Oh wow, that’s the lady who won Dancing With the Stars!” that the crowd realized they had a celebrity in their midst. “It’s a pretty special day,” Shawn Johnson said as she waited for her turn to run. “It’s my 18th birthday today, and I get to join in the celebration of this international event.”
One of the torchbearers isn’t a star just yet, but he’s working hard to make that come true. “I hope to make it to the London 2010 Olympics,” said pentathlete Joshua Riker-Fox, currently in training. And proving that you just can’t get away from the nostalgia sweeping across this upstart Canadian city 22 years after its last torch run, Riker-Fox adds: “When I saw the torch come through in 1988, it planted the seed for the future. I knew right then that somehow, I would find a way to be a part of the Olympics.”
The Olympic Torch Relay heads Wednesday morning to Canada Olympic Park, site of such events as ski jumping and luge at the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics, before heading west to Canmore and Banff.
vfortney@theherald.canwest.com
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.