Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 7, 1990 TAG: 9007070304
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
First there was the lighting of the torch.
It happened before anyone was ready. There was no announcement. There was no warning. There was no pomp and circumstance.
The keeper of the flame, Artie Levin, just took off around the track at Roanoke's Victory Stadium with the torch burning in his hand.
He was about half-way around before some of the 14,000 people attending Friday night's opening ceremony to the Virginia CorEast State Games took notice.
"They said, `Go,' so I went," Levin said.
Once spotted, the 76-year-old Levin made a stirring picture as he ran with the torch, followed by a growing throng of youngsters and athletes keeping pace at his heels.
By the time he lit the flame that is to burn at Victory Stadium through the end of the games on Sunday, the crowd was on its feet, cheering wildly and waving miniature American flags.
Despite the timing mishap, it was still a thrill.
"This is really one of the things I will look back and remember in my life," Levin said. "It's a special event because this is the first one. It's quite an honor."
Levin ran the last leg of the torch run that began 12 days ago in Richmond and has taken more than 150 runners across 600 miles through Virginia.
He was asked because of his long involvement in promoting health and fitness through his television program, "The Artie Levin Show," which aired in Roanoke for 28 years.
Levin had another reason.
"They asked me to carry the torch because I was the first to carry it back in Athens," he said.
The sporting event's oldest competitor, Levin will run in the five-mile road race today. He already won the age 60-and-older bicycle race on Thursday.
"I don't set any records, but I survive it. That's the main thing," he said. "The idea is to keep in shape."
He has no plans for a repeat performance next year if the games return to Roanoke.
"If I was asked, fine, but when another year comes along they should pass the torch to someone else," he said.
He would like to see a woman carry it next time or a man and a woman together.
"As long as you have women competing, . . . then they ought to be involved. There's nothing wrong with that," he said. "The Olympics are doing it, and we should, too." He would also like to see someone who knows the ins and outs of lighting the flame better than he does.
In testing the hand-held torch that he carried on his run through the stadium, Levin had trouble figuring out how to light it.
Then when he finally got it, he had even more difficulty putting the flame out. He tried snuffing it in the dirt, but managed instead to set a small patch of grass on fire.
A bystander watching Levin came to his rescue eventually and smothered the torch with a tin cannister borrowed from a nearby food vendor.
Later, Levin's trip around the track was supposed to come as the finale in the two-hour opening ceremony.
But he was given the cue early, according to games director Bob Hartman, because organizers hoped it would help rally the more than 4,400 athletes to the speaker's platform.
Athletes were seated on the opposite stands from where the platform was located and where spectators were seated. And unlike in the Olympics, they did not parade through the stadium as part of the opening ceremony.
"The logistics of the stands being so far away from each other has been tough," Hartman said.
However, he said that didn't detract from the spirit of the ceremony. Also, lessons learned this year will be applied to next year's event.
"We wanted the athletes to have fun here, and that's what is taking place," Hartman said.
The torch run mix-up wasn't the only glitch to Friday's ceremony.
The fireworks display began too early and before dark.
Also, a group of hot-air balloonists showed up with an invitation from organizers to fly four balloons out of the stadium.
However, organizers had not checked with city officials about permission to fly the balloons, and the group was turned away. City policy does not allow hot air balloons on city property.
"It's unfortunate, but it's one of those little slip-ups that happens at something like this," said E. Laban Johnson, special-events coordinator for the Roanoke Department of Parks and Recreation.
The group of balloonists said they planned to go to the Salem Fair instead.
by CNB