STATE VISIT TO THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC - Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony in Athens

Once it will be on Canadian soil, the flame will travel through the longest domestic relay in Olympic history.

During her State visit to the Hellenic Republic, the Governor General witnessed the handover of the Olympic Flame by the Hellenic Olympic Committee to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).

Their Excellencies attended the Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. During the event, Greek officials entrusted the Olympic Flame to a Canadian delegation from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The final torchbearer of the Greek leg of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay was Nikki Georgiadis, a Greek Canadian figure skater from Pickering, Ontario. She entered the stadium running with the Olympic Flame.

Following the ceremony, the Governor General and Mr. John Furlong, Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), made statements to the press with the flame presented in a miner’s lantern.