Decked out in the same white tracksuit and red gloves as all Vancouver Torchbearers, country singer Shania Twain wafted the Olympic flame above her head as she progressed through her hometown of Timmins in Ontario.
“I feel very privileged, it’s the highlight of my life to have been able to carry the flame,” the Canadian enthused while interviewed on stage in the town in which she grew up.
“What it shows is the spirit of the people from the north to be standing out in the roads for all these hours in the freezing cold, all of you, it really does show your spirit. I’m just glad to be home, glad to be a part of this.”
Others from the entertainment industry to have taken part in the iconic relay are soul singer Aretha Franklin, American broadcaster Larry King, and president Jed Bartlet, aka Martin Sheen‘s character in political series The West Wing, all for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Combining the sport and entertainment industries, martial arts actor Jackie Chan carried the torch for Beijing 2022, while a plethora of sport stars have also enjoyed the kudos of being an Olympic Torchbearer.
One of the most famous winter sport athletes of them all ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky (Vancouver 2010), basketball star Magic Johnson and boxer Muhammad Ali for Salt Lake City 2002, footballers Michel Platini (Albertville 1992) and Park Ji-sung (PyeongChang 2018), plus figure skater Kim Yuna who memorably lit the cauldron at her home Games in Republic of Korea as the final Torchbearer, have all enjoyed the unique experience.
As Bublé put it in the lyrics overlaid on the montage of his own experience, from his track Hold On: “Didn’t they always say we were the lucky ones?”