Photo VANOC/COVAN
WINNIPEG, MB – Three members of The University of Winnipeg community have been selected to carry the Olympic torch as it crosses the country in anticipation of the Winter Games, which open February 12, 2010 in Vancouver.
Sandra Kirby, Associate Vice-President (Research) and Dean of Graduate Studies, UWinnipeg will carry the torch on Monday, November 30, 2009 through Pointe-au-Père, Quebec.
Lloyd Axworthy, President and Vice-Chancellor, UWinnipeg will carry the torch on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 along Main Street from City Hall to McDermot Avenue at approximately 6:15 PM. Axworthy was nominated for the honour by RBC’s Torch Committee.
And UWinnipeg 3rd year Kinesiology student, Alexandre Ross-Gautron, also selected through RBC, will be carrying the Olympic Torch down Portage Avenue in January.
Sandra Kirby is a former Olympic rower who participated in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
“It is an honour to be selected to carry the torch and I said that I would go anywhere in the country,” said Kirby. “The world feels united for that brief moment when the torch is lit. I still feel that the torch is the light of the Olympic movement – not what it is – but the promise of what it can be. The Olympic torch IS the oath – to compete fairly and for the joy of sport and to respect each other. It signifies all the hopes, dreams, countless training sessions in the hot sun, wind, rain and snow, extraordinarily hard competitions, successes and some failures…that led each one of us to represent our various nations.”
Approximately 12,000 people have been selected as Olympic Torchbearers, a majority through public programs. The Torch Relay is more than 100 days in length and over 45,000 kilometres will be travelled.
The 2010 Olympic Torch Relay began in Canada on October 30, 2009 and concludes at the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games on February 12, 2010.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Diane Poulin, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135, E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
