John Amaechi welcomes Olympic torch to London

Gay Games Ambassador John Amaechi was perhaps the last out LGBT person to carry the Olympic torch for the 2012 Olympics, which has seen a dozen LGBT people taking the flame.From the BBC:


The torch is on the first day of its week-long tour of London in the final countdown to the Games.

The relay travels through five of the six Olympic boroughs on Saturday as it passes from Greenwich to Waltham Forest, going through Newham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney on the way.

The flame's circuit of the capital will see it pass through each of the city's 33 local authority areas and finish at the opening ceremony on 27 July.

It spent Friday night at the Tower of London, having arrived in the capital in dramatic fashion at the tower that evening, where it was abseiled from a helicopter by a Royal Marine.

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Shortly before 10:00 BST legendary gymnast Nadia Comaneci - winner of five Olympic gold medals and the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 - met ex-basketball star John Amaechi on the roof of the North Greenwich Arena, where they exchanged the flame.

Amaechi then stepped off the edge of the roof onto a walkway. The arena is the venue for the London 2012 gymnastics events and basketball finals.

[...]

The flame will be carried by a total of 8,000 people during its 8,000 mile, 70-day journey to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London on 27 July.

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