Gretzky hasn't told dad if he's torchbearer

Last Updated: Friday, February 12, 2010 | 12:41 PM ET

CBC Sports

If Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is lighting the Olympic cauldron Friday night, he hasn't mentioned it to his father, Walter. (Tara Walton/Canadian Press)

If Wayne Gretzky is the final torchbearer for the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, it's news to his father Walter.

Walter Gretzky, father of the retired hockey hero, told CBC reporter Chris Brown that his famous son hasn't told him if he's the one to light the cauldron at BC Place Stadium.

The elder Gretzky carried the torch on Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver Friday morning.

It's still unknown if Wayne Gretzky, one of Canada's most well-known athletes and an Olympic gold medallist as the general manager of the 2002 men's hockey team, will be involved in the final stages of the torch run.

But it seems unlikely that Gretzky is the final torchbearer, especially considering a statement from Vancouver Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong this week.

Furlong told reporters Thursday that speculation The Great One would light the cauldron is false.

"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," he said. "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."

Fox's mother, Hansen among other candidates

Rumours about who will be chosen to light the cauldron have swirled this past week.

Canadians are divided on the topic, but a handful of names emerged from public debate, including Gretzky's.

Other popular candidates include Betty Fox, mother of Canadian legend Terry Fox, Man in Motion Rick Hansen, Olympic figure skater Barbara Ann Scott and alpine ski queen Nancy Greene Raine.