GAMES ORGANIZERS HOLD THEIR FIRE AS TORCH DUBBED 'OLYMPIC
TOKE'

Organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver are taking the
mellow approach to suggestions that their planned Olympic torch looks
like a marijuana cigarette.

"We're not worried about it at all," Dave Cobb, the executive
vice-president of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (Vanoc) told
reporters yesterday, in response to a Toronto Star article that dubbed
the torch "The Olympic Toke."

Vancouver is a major production area for illegal marijuana, and there
has been quiet snickering about the comparison since the high-tech
metal torch was unveiled in February to mark the one-year countdown to
the Winter Games.

The torch's design is intended to "represent Canada through the
contours of winter landscapes and lines of winter sports," according
Vanoc's website.

But the design is slightly crimped at each end, with a twist in the
body, giving it at least a passing resemblance to a hand-rolled
marijuana joint.

"I think people are poking a little bit of fun at us," Vanoc chief
executive John Furlong said.

The torch will travel the length and breadth of Canada in a 106-day,
45,000-km relay that starts in October and ends with the lighting of
the Olympic Flame in Vancouver in February 2010.

Vanoc says it has had more requests from Canadian communities wanting
to participate in the torch relay than the schedule can handle.

The route, which will begin in Victoria, will stay within Canada.