Quad Rugby/Story - USQRA Referee Fired Up

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

December, 2001

USQRA Official Fired Up to Carry Torch

Ruskin, Florida

USQRA Referee, Tres Smith will be carrying the Olympic torch through Deland, Florida, just north of Orlando, on Friday, December 7, 2001. He will run with the torch for about a quarter mile beginning around 6:00 p.m.

The torchbearers were selected by panels of judges, who were looking for people who embody the Olympic spirit to carry the 3-pound torch for two-tenths of a mile. Tres's brother, Henry, nominated him.

Tres has been a Wheelchair Rugby referee for 12 years. He officiated the very first Wheelchair Rugby game played at the Paralympic level in Atlanta in 1996, and he was Head Official at the Paralympics in Sydney 2000.

The Olympic flame will arrive in a special container aboard a plane from the Olympic birthplace of Athens. It will take a serpentine 65-day course through America starting Dec. 4 in Atlanta and arriving Feb. 8 in Salt Lake. The identify of the final torchbearer, who will light the cauldron at opening ceremony, wonšt be known until that moment. In all, the flame will travel 13,500 miles by air, train, ship, dog sled, snowmobile, horse-drawn sleigh and other modes of transport, including runners who will carry the torch for 17 percent of the distance.

Watch for Tres in the news this weekend!

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