Torch Relay a Multiethnic Celebration

The images of the 1984 Summer Games will be reversed Saturday as decathlete Rafer Johnson lights an Olympic torch from a caldron at the Los Angeles Coliseum and hands it off to the granddaughter of famed Olympian Jesse Owens.

Twelve years ago, Owens’ granddaughter Gina Tillman ran the torch onto the Coliseum field and handed it off to Johnson, the final runner in a cross-country torch relay who touched off the start of the Los Angeles Games.

The torch relay begins in Los Angeles this time around, and Johnson, an Olympic gold medalist in 1960, will run the first leg of its zigzagging trip to Atlanta for the 1996 Games, relay officials announced Thursday.

After Tillman’s run, she will hand the flame off to swimming gold medalist Janet Evans.

They will be the first of 225 Southern Californians to carry the flame 92 miles through Los Angeles County and into Orange County on the first leg of what officials call the longest relay in history.

More than 70 community celebrations--ranging from a Greek blessing of the event to Chinese lion dances--are planned along the route through Koreatown, downtown, Griffith Park, Hollywood, the Westside, South Bay and Long Beach.

Some of the torchbearers are Olympians; others are “community heroes” chosen by the United Way for their volunteer service, or people picked by Coca-Cola, the sponsor of the relay. Each will run one kilometer or less.

Community hero Sheryl Chariton, 18, was selected for her volunteer work with an Orange County youth drug awareness group. “I’m very honored and very excited,” she said.

Chariton plans to watch the lighting ceremony and keep her friends and family up Saturday night before her 3:50 a.m. leg through her Sunset Beach neighborhood.

“The adrenaline’s going to be pumping,” Chariton said. The Huntington Beach High School senior said she has been training by running with a 3-pound weight in her hand. The torch weighs 3 1/2 pounds.

The flame, contained in a lantern, will be flown from Athens, Greece, to Los Angeles International Airport and taken by helicopter to the Coliseum, also the site of the 1932 games. It will ignite a caldron, from which Johnson will light the first relay torch.

The community gatherings along the route will showcase the region’s cultural diversity: Mariachi bands, a gospel choir and Japanese taiko drums will provide music. Dance programs hail from Indonesia and New Zealand.

Street fairs will include a Los Angeles Dodgers rally, a family carnival at NBC Studios and a Manhattan Beach festival.

Relay officials expect thousands of spectators to cheer on the runners around noon on Olympic Boulevard in Koreatown, where entertainment includes a demonstration of tae kwon do, a first-time Olympic sport this year.

A parade and family festival will be held in Burbank from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. At Santa Monica Pier, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., an Olympic flame caldron lighting ceremony will feature appearances by Olympians, music and street performers.

The flame is expected to reach Huntington Beach about 4 a.m. Sunday. It will remain there for a few hours before going on through Orange and San Diego counties.

From there the flame, carried by a total of 10,000 torchbearers, will follow a 15,000-mile zigzag path through the nation to Atlanta. The torch run has its roots in the Olympic Games of ancient Greece, when heralds of peace ran through the country proclaiming the beginning of the truce and of the sports competition.

Last month, the Hellenic Olympic Committee used a mirror to focus the sun’s rays and ignite the flame at a temple in Olympia, Greece.

This year, the torches are made from pecan wood, aluminum and gold. Propane will keep the 12-inch flames burning.

For the first time, each runner will be able to buy his or her torch for $275. Chariton said she couldn’t afford to pay for her torch, but a radio station is helping her buy it.

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Step by Step

This is the route of the Olympic Torch Relay, which begins at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Exits Coliseum on 39th Street, right on Figueroa, right on Martin Luther King, right on Vermont, left on Jefferson, right on Arlington, right on Adams, left on Western, right on Pico, left on Normandie, right on Olympic, left on Figueroa, right on 6th, over bridge.

Left on Boyle, right on 4th, left on Soto, left on 1st, under Santa Ana Freeway, over bridge. Right on Main, bear right and immediate left onto Alameda, left on Alpine, entering Chinatown.

Left on Broadway, right on Cesar Chavez (which becomes Sunset), right on LeMoyne, left on Montana, right on Glendale, bear left and under Glendale Freeway, bearing left to stay on Glendale Boulevard.

Left on Riverside, entering Griffith Park, right at Travel Town parking, left at Western Heritage Museum, left on Zoo Drive, right onto Riverside, left to stay on Riverside, left on Alameda, left on Olive, bear left to Barham, cross over Hollywood Freeway, left on Cahuenga, bear left onto Highland, right on Hollywood, left on La Brea, right on Sunset, left on San Vicente, right on Santa Monica, entering Beverly Hills.

Left on Rodeo, right on Wilshire, left on South Santa Monica, right on Beverly Glen, left on Santa Monica, right on Westwood, bear right crossing Kinross, left on Le Conte, left on Gayley. Right on Wilshire, left on Ocean, right on Colorado, onto Santa Monica Pier.

Right on Ocean, left on Ocean Park, right on Main, entering Venice. Right on Windward, left on Pacific, left on Washington, right on Via Marina in Marina del Rey. Left on Admiralty Way, right on Fiji Way, enter bike path, left onto bridge, bearing right on Vista Del Mar, which becomes Highland, entering Manhattan Beach. Right on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, left on Manhattan Avenue, bearing right onto Greenwich Village, left on Hermosa, entering Redondo Beach.

Left on Portofino Way, right on Catalina, left on Torrance, entering Torrance. Right on Palos Verdes, left on Sepulveda, right on Hawthorne, left on Pacific Coast Highway to Long Beach. Right on Magnolia, left on Ocean, bear left onto Livingston, bear right onto 2nd, right on PCH to Huntington Beach. The day ends at the pier at Main and PCH.