Olympics 2008
-1hr for ETVancouver Winter Games torch relay begins
VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) Olympic triathlon gold medalist Simon Whitfield and speedskater Catriona Le May Doan are the first torchbearers for the Vancouver Winter Games in what will be the longest domestic Olympic torch relay in history.
Whitfield was a gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics and silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. He resides in Victoria, where the relay started on Friday.
Le May Doan lit the torch with Whitfield. She is the only Canadian to successfully defend an individual Olympic title, having won gold at Nagano and Salt Lake City.
Over 106 days, it will stop in every Canadian province and territory leading to the lighting of the cauldron at BC Place. The games will be held from Feb. 12-28 in Vancouver and Whistler.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP''s earlier story is below.
VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) The flame for the 2010 Olympics has arrived in Canada for the beginning of a journey that will be the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson carried the flame, burning in a miner''s lantern, out of the aircraft that arrived Friday from Greece, where the flame was lit by the rays of the sun on the site of the ancient games.
The torch will relay will cover nearly 28,000 miles, reaching the most extreme corners of the country, to Alert in the North and L''Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland in the east. It will pass through more than 1,000 communities and be carried by 12,000 torchbearers on a journey by plane, boat, bike, dogsled, skateboard and other modes of transportation.
AP
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