Looking back at the Calgary Olympics, 35 years later | 24CA News

It’s the thirty fifth anniversary of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary and the ultimate torchbearer is trying again with fond reminiscences.

Robyn Ainsworth, then Robyn Perry, was 12 years outdated when she was chosen to for the position. She stored it a intently guarded secret till the massive second arrived.

“Nobody knew except for my family and the people organizing it quite high up,” she says.

Ainsworth herself solely knew for the week main as much as the massive day.

She admits that her youth meant she didn’t notice on the time the stress: the eyes of the world have been watching her each transfer.

“I was probably too young to recognize exactly what was going on” she says.

“Plus I played quite a big role in other parts of the Olympics. I sang and danced at the medal presentations and I was skating in the closing ceremonies as well, so to do this was just an extra.”

So how did the enormous cauldron, situated in at McMahon Stadium, really feel because it was being lit?

“Just like a campfire,” she laughs.

She participated in a single run-through to find out the right peak of the cauldron, which moved up and down. It stopped barely larger than her, in order that her “hair wouldn’t catch on fire.”

“When they did that, they had to clear out the whole entire stadium,” she mentioned. Just a number of individuals remained inside, as to maintain all the main points beneath wraps.

Ainsworth’s life was ceaselessly modified due to her Olympic second.

She travelled to the Games in Seoul, South Korea as Canada’s goodwill ambassador. She carried the torch for the Vancouver Games in 2010.

She additionally has fairly a powerful haul of memorabilia which embrace scrapbooks, outfits and pictures.

She met many well-known individuals, together with athletes and royalty.

“It was an amazing experience to have,” she says warmly, noting Calgary’s hospitality was what actually put it excessive.

“It was literally a party. A really good, happy party. Everyone pitched in and it was an experience. It was wonderful.”

The volunteer spirit was additionally a spotlight for Olympian Kerrin Lee-Gartner. She competed in Alpine snowboarding in 1988, later profitable gold on the Games in 1992.

“I still love the volunteer jackets that pop up in the city from time to time,” she says.

“We talk about legacy and often legacy, it can be a building. It can be a structure. But I think the legacy that Calgary Olympics left are all those volunteers that were in their 20s and 30s who raised their kids with that mindset.

“I think that Calgary grew into the city that it is because of that.”

The CEO of Heritage Calgary agrees. Josh Traptow credit neighborhood leaders who managed to show a grassroots bid into the worldwide spectacle it turned.

“Real city builders. Boosters of our city that wanted to see Calgary continue to be put on the international map,” Traptow explains.

“People who gave money to put their name on a brick at Olympic Plaza still will go and find their brick. When the city has talked about renovating and updating Olympic Plaza, the calls the city and we would get would be, ‘What will happen to my Olympic brick?’

“People still have that affection 35 years later for what was probably a $5 brick.”

Many of the sporting venues constructed for the video games are ageing, some are out of fee or have been demolished.

Despite a failed try to create a bid in 2018 for the 2026 Winter Games, there lingers a sense with some residents to host once more.

“I think people want to see it hosted. But for so many reasons, whether it’s politically, financially I think it’s a big decision to make,” says Traptow. “But I think it would be wonderful to see the games return to Calgary and to see that magic of ’88 come back.”

“I would’ve liked to see it come back. I’m not sure now if it will. But I would’ve liked that,” says Ainsworth.

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