Games ceremony under wraps - who will light the flame? (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Feb 11, 2010, 21:28 GMT

Vancouver - A spectacular opening ceremony is on the cards to get the XXI winter Olympics underway in Vancouver on Friday, but details of the event remained a closely guarded secret.

The ceremony and the lighting of the cauldron will - for the first time - take place indoors with a two-and-half-hour extravaganza at the 55,000-seat BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.

Speculation was rife in the Canadian media about the event - and particularly the identity of the final torch bearer - with organizers doing their level best to keep everything under wraps.

Allegedly, only three people within the Vancouver organizing committee know who will light the flame - and there could even be a last-minute switch should that individual's identity leak out.

Canadian ice-hockey icon Wayne Gretzky is big tip as the final torch bearer but not all the local media were betting on it.

Some speculate that the cauldron could be lit by Betty Fox alongside a hologram of her national hero son Terry, a former athlete and cancer treatment activist who died in 1981 after he had been forced to abandon his Marathon of Hope cross-Canada run.

Gretzky would be the obvious choice as a sporting name known around the world, following many examples of famous sportsmen and women, most notably Muhammed Ali at Atlanta in 1996 or Cathy Freeman at the 2000 Sydney Games.

At the 2002 winter Games at Salt Lake City, the cauldron was lit by the entire US ice-hockey team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1980.

However there have been many other examples where local choices, unknown to the rest of the world, were preferred.

The torch was meanwhile homing in on the stadium, reaching downtown Vancouver on Thursday evening. Early Friday, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was due to hand the torch to former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, London 2012 chief organizer, just two of several notables on the final legs of the relay.

After two dress rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday, some details of the ceremony, reportedly featuring some 4,500 dancers, athletes and performers, have been leaking out.

'I've seen a mock-up of the show, and I'm pretty sure people are going to come out of the opening ceremony in Vancouver and they're going to be, Wow, that was fantastic,' said John Furlong, chief executive of Vancouver Olympic organizing committee VANOC.

'I thought it was visually stunning,' said one volunteer who had attended a dress rehearsal.

The opening and closing ceremonies will be directed by Australian David Atkins, who held the same role in the Sydney 2000 and Turin 2006 Games.

First Nations performers and arts groups are expected to feature in 'a broad spectrum of Canadian musical expression,' Atkins has been quoted as saying.

Local media report say several big-name entertainers and other notables will be on hand including Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, US vice-president Joe Biden, and Hollywood star and international goodwill ambassador George Clooney.

Canadian rock and pop stars Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado look set to perform and there has been talk of a We Are The World remake performance to help the Haiti earthquake relief effort.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will begin the opening party which will feature the traditional parade of nations, reports said.

That won't, however, feature a joint march by North and South Korea after the two sides failed to reach agreement, the IOC said.

Korean athletes marched together at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, extending a tradition that started 2000 in Sydney and continued at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

South Korea has 46 athletes at the Vancouver Games, while communist North Korea has two - one each in figure skating and speed skating.