Biathlon Canada Official

Kokkonen has been involved with Biathlon Canada for many years and was Chief of Competition during the Calgary Games in 1988. He was the Technical Delegate in the 1992 Albertville Olympic Winter Games, and has worked at six additional Olympic Winter Games. However, he was not chosen as a torchbearer because of his history in the sport. His selection was made by the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association of which he is President.

The biathlon veteran carried the torch on November 27 in Bathurst, New Brunswick on the Atlantic coast of Canada. The weather for his leg, which happened at round 7pm, was windy and rainy. He explained that “it was difficult to keep the flame burning in the wind and a large van was brought to drive alongside the runners as a wind-break.”

Not According to Plan

Other things did also not go as planned that evening and his wife got soaking wet while trying to take Kokkonens’s picture. ”My wife was pre-positioned with her camera at my planned start point to get some photos but my start point was changed. As a result, my wife only managed to get a picture of my back as I ran by.” But as VANOC supplies each torchbearer with an official photograph, he still got his picture, which accompanies this article.

Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity

About his feelings during this small journey literally on the Road to Vancouver he commented, “Being an Olympic torchbearer is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is tremendously exciting to be part of such a historic event and at the moment when you are carrying the torch, you know you are absolutely unique in the world. On the shuttle-bus carrying the runners, there is high tension, excitement, cheering, hugging and some tears as everyone waits their turn with impatient anticipation. Then the "kiss" of fire from the preceding runner and the heady two or three minutes of lights, cheering and waiving crowds and excited happiness after which the runner boards the following shuttle-bus to some more cheers and hand-shakes from the other runners who have shared the same heartfelt experience.

I wrote in the guestbook on the shuttle-bus: ‘I was humbled by the honor to be a link in the chain of this incredible journey of the Olympic flame across our great land of Canada but I did proudly, with a sense of joy and with a glowing heart.’”

Torch Goes On

The torch will travel 45,000 km throughout Canada, carried by 12,000 torchbearers, by foot, skis, snowshoes, dogsled, canoe, snowmobile and many other traditional Canadian means of transport. It will visit over 1000 communities and will arrive in Vancouver, British Columbia on 12 February to light the Olympic flame at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The torch relay can be viewed live via a webcam streaming video on the internet at: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/torch/follow-torch/index.html