So Wayne Gretzky won't light the cauldron, according to John Furlong. Well, sort of.
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VANOC chief says Gretzky not the one -- or is he?
- February 11, 2010 11:13 PM |
- By Bruce Arthur
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So Wayne Gretzky won't light the cauldron, according to John Furlong. Well, sort of. The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, or VANOC, left just enough wiggle room for a Wayne Gretzky pass to sneak through.
In an interview with Global National's Kevin Newman, here was the exchange:
Newman, holding up the Vancouver Province, which featured a picture of Gretzky and the headline, IS WAYNE THE ONE? said: "I guess the last sort of big question is who gets to light the cauldron, and I'm noticing in the paper this morning that Wayne Gretzky has suddenly shown up in town. Any reasons you care to share?"
Furlong: "It's one of those challenges you have where only one or two people can know, or it isn't going to stay locked down. And I have gone to bed and woke up every day for the last 90 days praying I wouldn't see it on the front page of the paper -- and so far it hasn't.
"And so far I can tell you this: you can think about this as long as you'd like and you can think about the last moments of the ceremonies as long as you'd like and you're not going to figure it out."
The wiggle room, for the conspiracy-minded: Furlong didn't say what he prayed he wouldn't see on the front page. Presumably, he prayed he would not see a front page with, say, Wayne Gretzky on the cover that read, WAYNE IS THE ONE. (The Province LOVES all caps.)
But the cover only asked the question, which allowed for the sliver of doubt. I don't think Gretzky will be the final bearer of the torch -- and frankly, I hope he isn't, for a number of reasons. But given how he ducked the media at the awful corporate lovefest he attended Wednesday, it's still fun to speculate.
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
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