Brazil's Opening Ceremony hero didn't find out he was lighting torch until an hour before
The story is good. The story about the telling of the story is better.
The highlight of Friday night's Rio Opening Ceremony was marathoner Vanderlei de Lima lighting the Olympic cauldron in a refreshingly low-key way. The 46-year-old took the flame from Olympic basketball silver medalist Hortência standing on the floor on the Maracana, then climbed a short flight of steps, paused, lifted the torch, then dipped the flame, which had been burning since its creation in Greece months before, and lit the cauldron, which dramatically rose to its permanent position high atop the stadium.
It looked like it'd been practiced 100 times. It hadn't. According to de Lima, he only found out he was lighting the cauldron an hour before the eyes of the world were on him.
There had been much speculation about who would light the cauldron in Rio. Global soccer Pele had been long rumored to serve in the Muhammad Ail role for his country, except unlike Ali, he'd never competed in an Olympics. When Pele said his health would prevent him from attending the Ceremony, attention shifted, but not to de Lima.
Around midday it was reported that Brazil's biggest ever tennis star, Gustavo Kuerten, the three-time French Open winner, would light the flame. But Guga, as he's affectionately known, flamed out early in two Olympics — a first-round loss and a quarterfinal loss.
While the world scrambled to figure out who would be the one, evidently organizers didn't know either. De Lima got the nod and, given that the Opening Ceremony was in full swing when he says he found out, couldn't have had any real practice.
It didn't look like it. Though it came at the conclusion of a so-so Opening Ceremony, the cauldron lighting was quite enjoyable, particularly because of the complete mystery involved in it. De Lima, who wasn't bandied about as a candidate, was a deserving figure. In 2004, he led the marathon in Athens when he was tackled by a defrocked Irish priest who pushed de Lima into the crowd on the sidewalk. By the time he recovered, de Lima could only earn bronze.
Oh, and about that story of the story? De Lima told his tale to reporters early Saturday morning — around 1:30 a.m. — while dressed in his Opening Ceremony gear and at a gas station. He was buying beer.
Nice. You earned one, irmão.
