Coca Cola Names Olympic Torch-Bearers
Early last week, the Coca Cola Company announced the results of its Who Inspires You? competition that kicked off on January 27 to select 42 participants of the Olympic torch relay in Kyiv. The organizers aimed to give a chance to every Ukrainian citizen aged over fourteen to compete for the right to participate in the torch relay, an event of international importance, and select for the Ukrainian team the best of the best, people whose actions would serve as an example to others. The participants have been selected by a jury composed of prominent athletes, public figures, and journalists. “We have reviewed thousands of applications mailed from every corner of Ukraine by people in all walks of life — students, doctors, teachers, soldiers, and athletes,” says jury chairman Ihor Zasieda, adding that “Numerous life stories prove that outstanding people live next to us. For this reason, selecting the best 42 was a very difficult decision.” The final composition of the torch-bearers team to carry the Olympic flame through Kyiv streets will be approved by the Organizing Committee of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
This year’s torch relay will span 27 countries. For the first time since it was introduced the torch relay will span the globe, the Olympic flame being a symbol of the transmission of Olympic ideals from ancient Greece to the modern world. The torch will cross five continents symbolized by the five Olympic rings. The slogan of the torch relay is “Pass the Torch — Unite the World.”
The Olympic flame will arrive in Kyiv on the morning of July 5. “This will be an unforgettable event in the life of every torch-bearer selected by the Coca Cola Company, who will become stars in the historic event of a global Olympic torch relay,” says Coca Cola Ukraine General Director Dmytro Yefymov, adding that “We have a unique opportunity to share in the Olympic spirit right here through our selected participants, who on July 5 will become the bearers of the Olympic ideals of unification and inspiration.”
At the meeting of the Olympic Press Club, the Coca Cola Company announced the list of journalists to participate in the relay. Among them are Oleksandr Bohutsky, general director of the nationwide ICTV television channel, popular television hosts Lidiya Taran (New Channel), Ihor Miroshnychenko (ICTV), and Valentyn Shcherbachov (UT-1), Liubomyr Lukyaniuk from the Segodnia [Today] newspaper, as well as popular radio host DJ Pasha (Gala-Radio).
Participants selected by Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee have been also announced. Athletes Oksana Tsyhuliova, silver medallist in trampoline at the 2000 Olympics, Oleksandr Volkov, a 1988 Olympic champion in basketball, Viktor Pohanovsky, a 1980 Olympic champion in horseback riding, Mykola Chuzhykov, a 1964 Olympic champion in canoeing, and Nina Hetsko, a 1976 Olympic champion in handball will participate in the torch relay.
The organizers have decided to keep to themselves the information as to who will open the Olympic torch relay in Kyiv. The distance to be covered by every torch-bearer ranges between 300 and 500 meters. This year’s Olympic torch is a significant improvement on the torches of previous years. Weighing only one pound, it is filled with enough gas for the flame to last for fifteen minutes, enough for the bearers to cover their sections of the relay. The torch-bearers will keep their torches after the relay.
