Kingston’s Simon Whitfield, a two-time Olympic medalist in triathlon, is among the first 10 people who have been named to run a leg in the Pan American Games torch relay.
Whitfield also has a bronze medal from the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg in 1999.
Somewhere.
“That would be the only medal I don’t know where it is,” he told Toronto radio station 680 News. “Winnipeg was a big experience for me, it was a big experience for the rest of my career, but somewhere out there is my Pan Am medal, and I’m not quite sure where that is.
“I’ve got two little kids who like to hide things. That medal is in my house somewhere. Two little girls know where it is; I do not. It’s probably with some Legos somewhere.”
The 41-day relay will involve 3,000 torchbearers, each completing, on average, a 200-metre segment. In a release, the Toronto organizing committee says the torch will be carried by more than 60 modes of transportation on a route through 130 communities comprising 5,000 kilometres on the road and 15,000 kilometres by air.
The torch will pause in Kingston on Day 33 of the relay, for a ceremony at Fort Henry July 2.
Torchbearers were selected through a variety of channels. Many were chosen through a public process, while others were nominated by sponsors and Games stakeholders, including the communities through which the torch relay will pass.