“Step Aside, Torch Comin’ Through!” quips FS’s Mary Ritz, as she displays the jogging stride she used in Columbus, Mont., as an Olympic torchbearer for the 2002 Winter Olympics. She was one of 11,500 torchbearers--and also one of, at last count, six USDA employees--to participate in that activity. Ritz helped to move the Olympic flame, which was used in lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremonies in Salt Lake City, through 13,500 miles across 46 states in 65 days. --Photo by Marty Sharp

We Helped Move The Olympic Flame To Salt Lake City
   65 Days, 11,500 Torchbearers
by Ron Hall, Office of Communications

By the time the 2002 Winter Olympics began on February 8, the Olympic flame used in lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremonies in Salt Lake City had traveled 13,500 miles across 46 states and had been carried by 11,500 Olympic torchbearers. Six USDA employees were part of that group.

Jason Waggoner, a public affairs specialist with the Food Safety and Inspection Service in Washington, DC, was the first of the six USDA employees to run with an Olympic torch–-at 6:06 p.m. on December 21. “I ran two-tenths of a mile through downtown Washington,” he said. The distance--equivalent to one lap around a track--was the standard length that most torchbearers traveled with the Olympic flame.

He said that each runner carries a separate torch and that the Olympic flame is passed from torch to torch. Participants can then purchase the particular three-pound torch they carried for $350--or, in many instances, sponsors donated the individual torches to their respective torchbearers.

Back in March the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) and private sector sponsors Coca-Cola and Chevrolet had asked Americans to nominate, as Olympic torchbearers, individuals who had inspired them and had embodied “Olympic ideals.” Nominations received by the SLOC were then read and judged by regional community task forces, while those received by Coca-Cola and Chevrolet were selected through an in-house process, then checked and verified for authenticity before notification.

It’s 6:03 p.m., and the temperature is only in the high 30s, but FS’s Joe Meade is smiling nonetheless, as he and his guide dog Navarro jog two-tenths of a mile through downtown Albuquerque. What’s significant about this particular jog is the torch in Meade’s right hand. It’s an Olympic torch, and Meade is using it to help transport the Olympic flame 13,500 miles from Atlanta to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics. He was one of 11,500 torchbearers and also one of, at last count, six USDA employees to participate in that activity. --Photo by Susan Alden

“I had worked as a volunteer at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta,” Waggoner said, “which may have had something to do with my selection as a relay runner this year.” Atlanta was also the starting point, on December 4, for the 65-day, 13,500-mile journey of the Olympic flame, on its way to Salt Lake City.

Fast forward 22 days to January 12 where, at 6:03 p.m., Joe Meade, Forest Service’s director of recreation for its Southwestern Region, based in Albuquerque, N.M., moved the Olympic flame through that city. “As I was running down the center of the street,” Meade quipped, “my guide dog Navarro kept trying to move me onto the sidewalk, per his training.”

All runners got to keep their standard issue required running uniform--which included synthetic windpants and pullover windshirt, a cotton t-shirt, and a fleece hat and gloves.

Ten days later on January 22 Gary Weldon, the FS personnel and EEO/civil rights program manager for the Winema and Fremont National Forests in southern Oregon, carried the flame through Klamath Falls, Ore., at 5:25 a.m. He said that a support runner, generally from the local community, follows alongside if needed for assistance.

“In addition,” he said, “there is an SLOC person responsible for turning on the gas cannister in the torch just prior to the lighting of each torch--and then the gas is turned off once the flame is passed on to another participant.”

Nine hours later Even Evensen, an FS seed orchard manager on the Siuslaw National Forest in western Oregon, carried a torch at 2:30 p.m. “I’d first found out about my participation when I had read my name in the Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper back on October 24,” said Evensen, a triathlete.

“Some of my triathlon training partners had submitted my name to the sponsoring officials.” He carried a flame-bearing torch on a street in downtown Salem, Ore.

Three days later on January 25, Jason Emhoff, an FS forestry technician firefighter on the Wenatchee National Forest in central Washington, moved the flame at 7:15 a.m., through a street in Pasco, Wash.

“I had the good fortune of having a group of Forest Service supporters cheering me on during my early morning run,” he said.

Mary Ritz, an FS rangeland management specialist on the Shoshone National Forest in northwest Wyoming, carried a torch on January 28 at 11:32 a.m., through Columbus, Mont. “I was nominated,” she said, “because, as of last July, I became the first woman, and one of only two people total, to complete both ultramarathons and marathons on all seven continents.”

She said that the inscription on each torch was “Light The Fire Within.” “That motto tells me we all have our own specialty, whether in sports or other endeavors,” she said. “So pursue your specialty to the max.” •