Canadian sport legends light Cauldron

Seven years of painstaking planning and rising anticipation reached a climax Friday night with a dramatic surprise lighting of an outdoor Olympic Cauldron that few were expecting.

Wayne Gretzky, Rick Hansen, Catriona LeMay Doan, Steve Nash and Nancy Greene Raine all helped in an unusual lighting ceremony on the floor of B.C. Place, just before fireworks started spouting from the outer rim of the B.C. Place roof.

But Gretzky, with flame held aloft, then ran out of the stadium and into a pickup truck led by a police escort. The truck wound through the streets of downtown Vancouver to Jack Poole Plaza. Gretzky then lit what will be the Olympic Cauldron that will burn throughout the 17 days of the Games.

The arrival of the Olympic flag and the final lighting of the cauldron were moments packed with Canadian star power. The Olympic flag was carried across the stage by Donald Sutherland, Romeo Dallaire, Barbara Ann Scott, Anne Murray, Jacques Villeneuve, Bobby Orr, Julie Payette, and Terry Fox's mother, Betty, all dressed in white.

Earlier, General Michaelle Jean had declared that the Vancouver Games, the 21st Winter Olympics, to be open.

But the 60,000 fans packed into B.C. Place made their own declaration a little more than an hour earlier with an ear-splitting welcome as Canada's team marched into the opening ceremony.

Clara Hughes, the 37-year-old Winnipegger who has medals at both Summer and Winter Olympics, smiled as she carried the flag in both hands and waved it slowly back and forth. Other athletes held Canada scarves aloft as the walked slowly and savoured the crowd's adulation.

This is the third Olympic Games held in Canada. Canadian athletes did not win a gold medal in either the 1976 Montreal Summer Games or the 1988 Calgary Winter Games but that seems almost certain to change this time around.

VANOC president John Furlong paid tribute in his speech to the late Jack Poole, who was the chairman of VANOC, and Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger who died in a horrific crash earlier Friday. The festive atmosphere that reigned in the Olympic cities, Vancouver and Whistler, gave way to shock and gloom yesterday afternoon following the death of Kumaritashvili.

International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge, who spoke in English and French, thanked VANOC and various levels of Canadian government for their commitment and support.

The carefully choreographed opening ceremony began with a snowboarder navigating his way down a makeshift ramp, and teenaged jazz sensation Nikki Yanofsky signing O Canada resplendent in a red dress.

Organizers had implored the fans who crammed into B.C. Place to arrive early so they could practice the special effects the organizers had planned. B.C. Place is the first indoor stadium to hold an Olympics opening ceremony, and the massive white stage was a contrast to the green landscape outside in a city that is one of the warmest ever to hold a Winter Games.

It was 11C outside with a misty rain falling out as the official party of Jean, Prime Minster Stephen Harper, Furlong and Rogge took their positions shortly after 6 p.m. local time.

After a brief presentation from the four Host First Nations, the parade of athletes began. Athletes dressed in national uniforms took pictures and waved to the B.C. Place crowd as they marched in, proudly waving flags from traditional winter sport powerhouses such as Austria, Norway and Switzerland but also from countries where snow and ice don't exactly spring to mind, Algeria, Bermuda and Pakistan for example.

The parade of athletes was followed by a stunning 50-minute presentation that mixed Canadian superstardom with traditional culture and dazzling special effects. Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado sang a duet to open the artistic show. Sarah McLachlan sat at a piano and sang Ordinary Miracle. Ashley McIssac and Loreena McKennitt also performed in a complex fiddle and tap sequence. Some of the special effects included a giant polar bear and a replica of the endless golden fields of the prairies.

A Vancouver poet named Shane Koyczan delivered a stirring oration called We Are More. After Jean declared the Games open, k.d. lang offered a rendition of Leonard Cohen's classic Hallelujah. Quebec star Garou sang the Torch Song and the Olympic hymn was performed by Measha Brueggergosman.