Torchbearers’ Trip of Triumph

It’s a short jog, less than the length of a running track. But this is not a race about speed or distance.

The scores of people who will carry the Olympic Torch through California this week have already run the distance in ways both incredible and modest. They have survived rare illnesses, founded charitable groups, rescued the injured, lived long and been just plain nice to others.

Along the way, a few celebrities such as astronaut Sally Ride, Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger will join their ranks as the relay wends its way through California streets--from San Diego through Newport Beach, on to Los Angeles and north to San Luis Obispo.

As they run, walk or roll wheelchairs down the road beginning Monday and ending Thursday, the torchbearers intend to hold high the flame that unites them.

“The thing I find is that everybody I know who had been chosen is part of a community,” said torchbearer Gilbert Martin of West Covina, a neonatologist who for years has healed the tiniest of babies. “My whole life is wrapped up in next Tuesday.”

For Martin and others, carrying the torch seems to embody their life’s work and focus their triumphs into one proud moment, a rare opportunity for friends and family to publicly cheer them on.

“For this country, it offers an opportunity to take part in something immensely symbolic,” said Anita DeFrantz, president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation, which was founded with money generated by the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

“I feel a part of something so big and so good . . . so reaffirming to me,” said Judy Willis, 52, of Santa Barbara, a doctor who traded her neurology practice for the classroom. In the last five years she has survived a skiing accident that tore up her leg and battled cervical cancer. Today she is cancer-free and teaching fifth-graders at Laguna Blanca School.

This is the first time that Evita LaVoie, an 18-year-old high school student from Banning, has had to acknowledge that, yes, she is extraordinary.

When she was 8, her skull was fractured in a car accident, requiring brain surgery that resulted in a frontal lobotomy and a 50-50 chance of survival.

She lost all memory and physical abilities. “I had to learn to walk, read and write all over again,” she said. Today, Evita is a varsity cross-country runner, soccer and basketball player at Banning High. And an honor student.

Every day, she said, pain shoots through her head right behind her eyes, sometimes requiring hospitalization. But her 7:40 a.m. run down a Laguna Beach street Tuesday--to the applause of classmates and family--will be yet another saving moment:

“When I run, it eases my mind,” she said. “It’s the only time I don’t have headaches.”

When the torch passes through Los Angeles, the public is invited to three-city sponsored celebrations Tuesday. Spectators should plan on gathering about 11 a.m. at Olvera Street, 2 p.m. at the Coliseum and 7 p.m. at Universal CityWalk.

The first torch relay was created for the 1936 Berlin Games by Dr. Carl Diem of Germany, who was inspired by Greek drawings, according to information on the Salt Lake City Games’ Web site. During the ancient Olympic Games in Greece, a sacred flame burned at the altar of Zeus, in whose honor the Games were played.

A white-robed actress playing the role of priestess lighted the flame for the 2002 Games on Nov. 19 in Olympia, Greece.

The Torch Relay, which culminates Feb. 8 with its arrival for opening ceremonies in Salt Lake City, includes 11,500 U.S. torchbearers, who will have traversed 13,500 miles through 46 states.

The karate coach, the school principal, the soldier and the mom were each nominated by someone who considers him or her a hero. Anyone could go into a Chevrolet dealership and fill out a nomination form, buy a can of soda from a participating Coca-Cola retailer and pick up a form from the cashier, or go online and tell the Olympic Committee why this person embodied the Olympic spirit. In the end, more than 210,000 nominations flowed into the sponsors, along with 100-word-or-less essays. Chevrolet and Coca-Cola randomly selected their nominees and then verified the stories. The Olympic Committee assigned groups of community leaders to select its pool.

Many of the torchbearers didn’t know they had been nominated. One was close to purging his e-mail notification, thinking it was spam.

“I was just checking my e-mail and saw: ‘Congratulations, you have been selected to carry the Olympic Torch,’ ” recalled Mark Johnson, assistant principal at Salesian High School in Boyle Heights. “I was going to delete it and then for some reason decided to open it.”

Johnson’s sister Tracy nominated him because, as she wrote, he is a “teacher, coach, friend, and motivator . . . but most importantly . . . the BEST big brother.”

Another athlete attempted to shrug it off.

“To be honest, I thought it was a joke,” said Dean Maccabe, 38, of Santa Ana. A stranger, moved after reading about Maccabe in a newspaper article, submitted his name.

Maccabe is a Paralympic gold medalist. He lost the use of his legs two decades ago when he broke his neck diving off a rocky crag near Corona del Mar.

“It is not so bad; I get some great parking spaces now,” Maccabe said. “You have to have a sense of humor. Life is too short.”

It was a rough start, though. A couple of years were mired in depression and physical therapy. Maccabe eventually found his love of sports again in the form of wheelchair rugby. He is a member of the U.S. team, which won the gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Then came a visit to the White House and an article about his life in a local newspaper. Early last year, a man who saw Maccabe at a local Kinko’s recognized him from the news article.

Months later, Maccabe got a call from that stranger, who explained that he had submitted a nomination for him and that it had been accepted.

Mark Walker, the Torch Relay spokesman, has accompanied the 50-Chevy caravan since the beginning and can recount many poignant moments:

Muhammad Ali lighted the torch in Atlanta and passed it to Peggy Fleming, who ran the first leg. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani carried it in honor of emergency workers who died Sept. 11. Torchbearers who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks ran with it through New York. In Oklahoma, the torchbearer paused at the reflecting pool memorial at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.

The nominating essays told their stories in a few moving sentences.

First Sgt. Maryann Enciso of the Air National Guard has served in the military for 18 years. The Hemet woman is dedicating her run to her troops. “This one is for you, because you are always there when we need you,” she said.

Elaine Bernal of Twentynine Palms served in the Marine Corps and California Highway Patrol for 20 years. She was severely injured when she was hit by a drunk driver. It took her four years to recover, but she is not back on duty and “she’s helping me through college,” her son wrote.

Maria Granados of Bellflower emigrated from Mexico as a teenager with little education, worked to support her family of four children, learned English, graduated from high school, became a citizen and recently completed the L.A. Marathon. “She is amazing,” her nominator wrote.

The selection committee was so moved by the essay written by Nicole Ostoya’s husband, Jacek, that they are both running. The Los Angeles couple’s first child, Milla, was born with a rare genetic disorder that left her physically and mentally handicapped. Then Jacek, an architect, was diagnosed with cancer in his right hand, for which he is undergoing chemotherapy.

“Nicole was our pillar of strength, never letting adversity get our family down. . . . She inspired all to stay positive and productive,” wrote Jacek, who will pass the torch to his wife Tuesday.

Then there is “everywoman” Eve Jaffe, 38, of Pacific Palisades, whose husband wrote:

“She represents every mom that toils to inspire her children. . . . She doesn’t make headline news and doesn’t win contests. But at the end of the day she hopes she has lit the spiritual torch in her children.”

Eve Jaffe hears the words for the first time and gets all choked up. “You know, I’m fairly unremarkable. . . . But I just love him to pieces for doing this for me.”

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Times staff writers Daniel Yi and Carol Chambers and special correspondent Carri Karuth contributed to this report.