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June 20th 2004
Passing The Olympic Flame
- In honor of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation among the nations David
Ahdoot of the HyperTec Group carries the torch for Canada
Montreal, June
20 2004 - Canada joined a new Olympic tradition as Montreal welcomed
the first-ever global Olympic Torch relay. As part of a worldwide
journey that will span the five continents represented by the Olympic
rings-Europe, Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas- Montreal is
the only Canadian city to host the Torch relay, which will pass
through all of the cities that have hosted the Olympic Summer Games.
Montreal hosted the games of the XXI Olympiad in 1976.
Summer 2004 marks a historic moment in the Olympic
Games. For the first time since Pierre de Coubertin inaugurated
the modern Olympic movement in 1896, the Olympic Games will be held
in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic movement. The first
GLOBAL OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY, an epic voyage that will see the Olympic
Torch and its message of friendship, peace and brotherhood carried
across five continents. The complete course will take 78 days and
will bring the Olympic Flame to 34 cities located in 27 countries
on a route covering over 78,000 kilometers, including 1,500 kilometers
in the hands of 3,600 relay runners. The Olympic flame will be back
to its country of origin as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad get
under way on August 13 in Athens. |
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Montreal is the only Canadian city to host the Global
Olympic Torch Relay. "The Olympic Flame is an incredible symbol of
unity and cooperation that we are honoured to once again welcome to Montreal,
28 years after the holding of the 1976 Olympic Games in the summer of
1976," Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay said. "The relay
will travel through 11 distinct and colorful boroughs that represent the
Olympic movement, which was built on the strengths of a multitude of communities."
On June 20, 2004, Montreal, the host city of the 1976 Olympic Games, relived
its Olympic glory as a 747 aircraft from New York carrying the flame landed
at Pierre Trudeau airport. The Montreal leg of the Relay began at the
Olympic Stadium, at the corner of Pie IX and Sherbrooke Street East, and
culminated at TOHU, la Cité des arts du cirque, where the passing
of the torch was highlighted by a public celebration.
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Renowned
members of both the public and private sectors in Montreal worked
together to plan this historic event. A selected group of 120 past
and future Olympic athletes, sports fans and public personalities
took turns carrying the Torch along the 60-km course across Montreal.
A selection committee working on behalf of the City of Montreal,
TOHU and the COC have chosen the runners from a list of outstanding
personalities who best exemplified the values promoted by the Olympic
Games. Coca-Cola and Samsung Electronics Canada have also launched
promotional contests to select the torchbearers for the event.
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The choice of Torch Carriers was a difficult and selective
process. On June 20th, the final list revealed the names of the chosen
few which included celebrities Olympic medalists Bruny Surin, Sylvie Bernier
and Marc Gagnon, Father Emmett Johns, founder of the outreach organization
"Le Bon Dieu dans la rue", CBC/Radio-Canada President Robert
Rabinovitch, McGill Principal and Vice Chancellor Dr Heather Monroe- Blum,
HyperTec CEO David Ahdoot, ... amongst others.
Contact:
Patrick Scateni
VXR-3DT Co-creator
Ciara Technologies
T: (514) 798-8880 Ext. 6550
pscateni@ciara-tech.com
Contact:
Andre Fuochi
Vice President, Technology Practice
GCI Group
T: (416) 486-7227
afuochi@gcigroup.com
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