Torch Relay Ignites Olympic Fever in O.C.

Thousands of Orange County residents rose before dawn Sunday to witness the arrival of the Olympic flame, turning fog-shrouded streets into parties with roaring crowds, marching bands and sidewalk entertainment.

From the caravan’s entry point at Seal Beach to its exit in San Onofre, folks dressed in red, white and blue hoisted American flags, cheered and waved as the torch passed by.

“This is absolutely marvelous,” said 85-year-old Ann O’Brien, a track and field competitor in the 1928 and 1936 Olympic Games, as she watched the celebration at the Huntington Beach Pier at 5 a.m. “I’ve never seen such a lot of people so early in the morning. It’s amazing and a real tribute to the Olympic Games.”

The torch, which arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday as it began its 15,000-mile journey across the country to Atlanta, entered Orange County shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday on Pacific Coast Highway.

In darkness and under a misty sky, spectators giddy with excitement and lack of sleep cheered as the caravan approached.

Teri Bennett, leading a dozen Brownies from McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, prepared the 8- and 9-year-olds for the quick passage of the flame. Although the girls had not slept at their slumber party, most were wide awake.

“I stayed up all night,” Amanda Kendrick said proudly. “I’ve never met anyone in the Olympics.”

When the torch finally arrived at 3:20 a.m. to chants of “U.S.A.” and the Los Alamitos High School marching band fight song, it was passed to runner Maurice Gonzales of Lancaster, an officer with the state Department of Corrections.

“This is awesome,” Gonzales said as he hoisted the 3 1/2-pound torch.

Gonzales’ wife, Diane, holding the water bottle for her husband’s kilometer jog and scanning the crowd around him, said, “We are just overwhelmed. This is so wonderful.”

As the torch disappeared in the mist down the highway and Brownie leader Bennett lined up her troop to leave, she said: “I told the girls you may never see it again. I told them I am 40 and I have never seen an Olympic torch, and they said, ‘Oh wow! Forty years old!’ ”

Down the road, nearly 5,000 people awaiting the torch’s arrival at the Huntington Beach Pier cheered to see that it was right on schedule.

In a Southern California touch, dozens of surfboards held by surfers wearing wetsuits or Hawaiian shirts created an entryway along Pacific Coast Highway for the torchbearer. At 4:45 a.m., Sidney Spinak ran through the corridor and touched the torch to a caldron to burn during the only one-hour layover in Orange County.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), a surfer, lined up with the surf crowd, holding his own board emblazoned with the congressional emblem and the words “Freedom Surf Team.”

As the Fountain Valley High marching band blared the Olympic anthem, organizers and sponsors thanked the spectators for their enthusiasm and support from a podium where the caldron burned.

“I never dreamed that this many people would come out at this time of day for this event,” said Ginger Watkins, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

An hour later, the torch began its journey down the highway, and the crowds dispersed into coffeehouses and restaurants for breakfast.

At least 17 people, however, discovered their cars had been towed from the downtown area. Although it was dark when the crowd arrived, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Jim Cutshaw said temporary signs in the area warned drivers not to park.

At 6:30 a.m., Main Beach in Laguna was blanketed in a gray haze when Frances Lattin, 81, and her daughter, Eloise Woolcott, 61, both of Laguna Beach, became the first arrivals at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Broadway to wait for the torch.

“I woke Mom up at 5:30 and said, ‘What the heck, let’s go down to where it’s happening,’ ” Lattin said. “We are just enthusiastic about things like this.”

But soon, thousands of others had joined them, including Chris Baker, 34, a former Atlanta resident, who remembered the excitement there four years ago when it was announced that Atlanta would host the Olympics.

“It was so exciting. Everybody stopped and got out of their cars and honked their horns.”

By the time runner Kurt Krumpholz made his way south on Pacific Coast Highway to the hill above Main Beach, the sun was shining through the haze and the city’s downtown had turned into a party.

A Frank Sinatra sound-alike with an amplifier crooned classics, smiling Girl Scouts waved flags of many nations, a gold-painted actor from the Pageant of the Masters twirled inside a replica of an Olympic coin, and a boisterous crowd five or six deep lined the street.

The hoopla turned to cheers as Krumpholz came into sight.

“Looking down from the hill, it was like, whoa, look at all the people,” said Krumpholz, 42, of Santa Ana, a former Olympic swimmer and world record holder.

At Main Beach, Krumpholz passed the torch to another former Olympian, Doug Kimbell of Long Beach, a water polo player who graduated from Villa Park High School in 1978. Krumpholz, barely winded after his kilometer run, was exhilarated.

“I wasn’t nervous this morning. It was just so much fun being part of the whole deal,” he said, adding with a smile, “I got lucky. I ran downhill most of the way.”