Torch bearer Robyn Ainsworth, left, who lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, lights a Vancouver 2010 cauldron in Calgary on Monday night. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press) The girl who launched Calgary's Olympic Games in 1988 returned to the spotlight all grown up on Monday night, running with the torch into the city's Olympic Plaza and lighting a cauldron in front of a cheering crowd.

Robyn Perry was just 12 when the world saw her light a giant cauldron in McMahon Stadium, symbolically launching the Calgary Olympics.

Perry, now Robyn Ainsworth, still lives in Calgary and was a surprise torchbearer Monday night. Before the relay, she told CBC News that holding the torch again would be a great honour.

"I would probably be one of those people crying the entire time, just overwhelmed," she said.

The Olympic torch arrived at around 4 p.m. in Calgary, on the 81st day of the cross-Canada relay.

Hundreds watch as Calgary relay begins

Hundreds of Calgarians lined Macleod Trail near Willow Park Drive to celebrate the Olympic torch's arrival in the city.

A crowd cheered as Calgary's first torchbearer Marc Halas patiently waited for the torch to be handed to him.

"Super exciting," said Halas, before the torch relay began its three-day journey in Calgary. "This is super emotional. This is awesome."

Brett Wilson of the CBC's Dragons' Den was also a torchbearer.

"Seeing the torch coming towards me and the flame glowing, it was a moment to choke up … Seeing this torch was really a legacy kind of moment," he said.

The relay travelled north on Macleod Trail then looping around downtown via 17th Avenue S.W., 14 Street S.W. and Ninth Avenue S.W. before arriving at the Olympic Plaza at 7 p.m.

Olympic torchbearer Marc Halas carries the torch into Calgary Monday afternoon. (CBC)

Musicians, dancers and Olympic athletes gathered at the downtown plaza for a free family event until 8 p.m.

More than 20,000 people were in and around the Olympic Plaza for the celebrations and the torch's arrival, Calgary police estimated.

There were no major incidents except for three arrests, which included one for public intoxication, police said.

On Tuesday, the torch will be taken through parts of northwest Calgary. Former Olympic speedskater Susan Auch will skate with the torch in the Olympic Oval at 9 a.m. Then the relay will head to northeast and southeast Calgary before going to some of the communities outside the city.

On Wednesday, the torch will travel through Bowness and Canada Olympic Park. Detailed maps of the route are available on the Vancouver 2010 website.