Kingston and the Olympic Torch: A Unique History
Kingston has a history of Olympic Torch involvement which is unique in Canada.
- In October 1844, a track and field competition, called the Kingston Olympic Games, was held in the City of Kingston. It was open to all Kingston citizens: no qualifying restrictions were imposed. The Chair of this event was the Kingston Mayor, Thomas W. Robinson.
This competition derives from the Olympic Games that were held in towns and villages in England during the 1840s. These Games were part of a physical recreation and social gathering venture throughout the country. This event served as a model for the international version of the Olympic Games by the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre Baron de Coubertin, who witnessed this type of competition in Much Wenlock in England near the Welsh border in 1869.
Insofar as it can be ascertained, Kingston is the only city in early Canada that held an Olympic Games.
- When the Olympic Torch arrives in Kingston on December 14, 2009, it will be the third time that the Olympic Torch will have been in Kingston. This is a distinction which very few cities in Canada hold.
The first time an Olympic Torch Relay arrived in Kingston was on July 18, 1976 when the Torch came from Montreal to burn at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Complex for the Olympic Sailing events that were held there.
The second time the Olympic Torch came to Kingston was in December 1987 en route to Calgary for the 1988 Olympic Winter Games. The Olympic Flame was welcomed by a crowd of 8000 in front of Kingston City Hall.
- In the literature issued by the International Olympic Committee, a city is designated as an Olympic City when it has the Olympic Flame alight in that city during an Olympic competition. In this regard, Kingston can be said to be an Olympic city.
- Kingston is one of the few Olympic cities in the world that still has an existing structure which held the Olympic Flame. In most Olympic Cities, the structure that holds the Olympic Flame is invariably dismantled and disappears altogether.
In Kingston, the structure that held the Olympic Flame in 1976 is the Tetrahedron (an aluminum sculpture) located on a dock at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Site. It is a daily reminder that Kingston is an Olympic City.
March 24, 2009
E.R. Grenda
