A very special Olympic ceremony
THERE was a most impressive “lighting of the Olympic torch” ceremony at the Crawford College La Lucia campus earlier this week, which at the same time set out to honour the College’s five very own Olympians, who will be in Rio de Janeiro in less than a month to compete in the Olympic Games.
The ceremony was devised and choreographed by a talented marketing team at the Advtech Schools Division under the leadership of Crawford Schools marketing manager Shelley Carroll.
The MC for the production was Darren Maule.
The five Crawfordians destined for Rio de Janeiro are: Cameron van der Burgh (Crawford College Pretoria), the first South African male swimmer to win gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke and who also set a world record of 58.46 in this event at the 2012 London Olympics; Michele Weber (Crawford College La Lucia), the only woman in the SA Olympic swimming team who will compete in the women’s 10km open-water swim; Jared Crouse (Crawford College Pretoria); Michael Meyer (Crawford College Sandton); and Dylan Bosch (University of Michigan/Crawford College Sandton), the South African 200m butterfly champion.
Present at the colourful ceremony, which lasted just under an hour, was Jill Kotze (née Brukman), a staff member at Crawford College La Lucia and a former national backstroke and individual medley swimming champion who was a member of the South African swimming team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
She swam in the women’s 100m and 200m backstroke, 200m and 400m individual medley and the women’s 4 x 100m medley relay.
Jill was the first person to hold the Olympic Torch, which was delivered by helicopter, and to ignite it before it was held aloft in front of the big crowd of staff and pupils.
After a stirring rendition of the national anthem by the school choir, led by Grade 2 pupil Emma Wiam, the audience were entertained by hip hop dancers Tyra and Anna Yaghi until the arrival of Jill and the helicopter.
Having lit the Olympic flame and shown it off to the crowd, accompanied by much photography, it ultimately ended up in the hands of Graeme Weber, Michele’s younger brother, who was entrusted to deliver it safely to near neighbours Crawford College North Coast.
The finale, once more featuring the Crawford La Lucia choir, proved to be the highlight of the proceedings, with Grade 12 pupil Ellen Pretorius in great voice with her wonderful rendition of the Freddie Mercury hit song Barcelona.
The torch remained at Crawford College La Lucia overnight on Tuesday before being handed over to Crawford College North Coast on Wednesday, where it remained until today, when it is to be transferred by taxi service Uber to Johannesburg on its way to Crawford College Italia at Bedfordview.
All together the Olympic torch will be exhibited at 20 Crawford Colleges, with the last stop at Crawford College Pretoria on August 5 to coincide with the official opening of the Games in Rio, which will have 207 nations represented by more than 10 000 athletes competing in 306 events spread over 42 sports disciplines at 37 venues.
The Crawford College Olympic flame will remain in Pretoria for the duration of the Olympics, which will end on August 21.