Locals Carry On Olympic Tradition

There won’t be pre-competition jitters, but the Ventura County residents who are getting the chance to carry the Olympic torch on part of its 84-day, 15,000-mile journey across the country are nervous nonetheless.

“It’s such an honor,” said 18-year-old Ryan Duston of Ventura. “I mean, you get to be part of the Olympic experience. Of course I’m nervous. I just hope I don’t drop it and put the flame out.”

Duston was chosen as one of three “Community Heroes” from the county after his father wrote the Olympic Committee about his son’s volunteer work with the local chapter of the American Cancer Society.

Attending college in San Luis Obispo, Duston will run one of the kilometer-long legs of the torch’s journey as it winds its way through San Luis Obispo on May 2.

Five other Ventura County residents will participate in the torch relay today in Los Angeles County.

Lit from a fire in Olympia, Greece, on March 30, the flame is scheduled to arrive at 8 a.m. today at Los Angeles International Airport. It will be ferried across town via helicopter to the Coliseum, where a ceremony will herald the start of the relay. The route will not include a run through Ventura County.

Among those Ventura County residents carrying the torch will be three-time Olympian and Thousand Oaks chiropractor Terry Schroeder.

A former member of the U.S. water polo team and two-time silver medal winner, the 37-year-old Schroeder will carry the torch down Olympic Avenue after the ceremonies at the Coliseum.

A participant in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 games, Schroeder has plenty of Olympic memories. He is even cemented in history by having his torso used as the model for one of the Olympic statues placed in front of the Coliseum before the 1984 Games.

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But Schroeder said the memory that sticks in his mind most is that of 1960 Olympic decathlon winner Rafer Johnson carrying the torch into the Coliseum in 1984 and lighting the huge Olympic flame that would burn for 16 days and nights during those games.

“When he came into the stadium it was such a thrill. That was one moment I can never forget,” Schroeder said.

Standing with the U.S. Olympic team and the 7,800 other competitors from 140 nations while 100,000 spectators cheered brought everything into focus for Schroeder.

“At that point, the torch took on a real meaning for me,” he said.

For 72-year-old Joe Dillman of Thousand Oaks, his Olympic thrill will come from carrying the torch at 4:30 a.m. Sunday along Pacific Coast Highway as it cuts through Huntington Beach.

“Being that early in the morning takes a little of the glory off the experience,” Dillman said.

Dillman, a volunteer who started a mountain bike patrol in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, is another “Community Hero” who will be running with the flame. The heroes are community volunteers nominated for their work with local charities and selected by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

Dillman said the Olympic Committee gives each runner the same white T-shirt, shorts and socks and will sell the torch to the runner for about $270. The flame is passed from torch to torch, so the same torch is not used throughout the journey.

Despite the hassle of waking up so early and heading to Huntington Beach at 2:30 in the morning and not being able to get too many friends or family members interested in watching him run at that hour, Dillman said he was still thrilled.

He said he was more worried about the torch going out.

“At that hour, I’m going to need it to see,” Dillman said.

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Another local torchbearer and former Olympian is Dr. Thomas McBreen,, 43. He swam in the 1972 Olympics and will be running today.

“A lot of my friends from Ventura, my family and the other doctors are all very excited,” McBreen said from his office, where he is a family doctor. “They’re taking a bus down there [to Los Angeles] to watch me.”

He has three daughters and one son, all of whom are thrilled to see their dad clutching the torch.

“I kind of do the Olympic thing every 12 years,” said McBreen, who also served as the swimming team doctor in the 1984 games.

He is grateful for the opportunity, which has earned him the envy of fellow doctors in Ventura, many of whom are also ex-jocks, he said.

“It’s an emotional thing, thinking about the athletic competition and the bond it creates between people from all over the world,” he said.

Other runners from the county include former Olympic marksman Victor Auer of Thousand Oaks, United Way volunteer Priscilla Partridge de Garcia of Camarillo, James Rardin of Simi Valley and Donna Pierson of Westlake Village.