Catholic Universe Bulletin

Sports

Former Canuck, seminarian among Olympic torch bearers in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA-A longtime professional hockey player and a seminarian were among those chosen to carry the Olympic torch around Vancouver in the days leading up to the Feb. 12 opening of the Olympics.

Trevor Linden, who spent 19 seasons in the National Hockey League ‑‑16 of them playing for the Vancouver Canucks ‑‑ will take to the streets not with a stick in his hands, but carrying the Olympic torch.
Noel Oco, who is just months away from becoming a member of the Order of St. Bruno, more commonly known as the Carthusians, was chosen to carry the torch after winning an essay competition.
Oco will carry the torch late Feb. 10, while Linden will carry the torch down Main Street in Vancouver Feb. 11. The torch will be used to light the Olympic cauldron Feb. 12 during the opening ceremonies.
Linden, who was baptized a Catholic in 2004 and been retired from professional sports for more than a year, was light‑hearted when asked how he prepared for the event.
"I wish I could say that I've been running around ... with my arm in the air holding a five‑pound weight, but that's not true," he said.
He said he sees the Olympic flame and the games as being less about sports and more about the world coming together.
"It (the flame) has come from Greece and zigzagged across Canada, so in that sense it's really united our country," he said. "For me, the flame is more than fire at the end of a stick; it's certainly got significance for the country and, in particular, for Vancouver."
Linden said while it might be hard to justify the Olympics from a cost standpoint, "you have to look at the intangibles that they bring to the community, to the children of the community, to your country. I think the timing's great."
This will not be Linden's first official encounter with the Olympics. In 1998 he took part in the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, as a hockey player for Team Canada.
"In Nagano I was living in tunnel vision. We (Team Canada) were totally focused and not really taking the whole thing in," said Linden, who helped his team place fourth.
This year, he said, he is taking a break from the sports side of things so he can enjoy the events as a spectator.
"As a fan I'll get a better sense of things, and it's very special that I'll have the games come to what I consider is my hometown," he said.
He said sports and faith "are intertwined."
"The virtues we practice in sport shouldn't change, whether we're working or in family life or wherever. They're part of who you are; there should be no distinction between your conduct in the rink, in the office and at home," he said.
Oco, who currently serves at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Vancouver, wrote his essay about the power of the Olympic flame.
"No matter how powerful the Olympic flame is and what it represents, the flame inside each of us is greater than that flame. What the Olympic flame does is reflect off each of us and inspire us to live up to the ideals of the Olympic movement," he said.
Contributing to this story were Alvaro Olaguera and Cleveland Stordy.