An Irish woman from Milford, Co Donegal, has joined a number of world sporting greats such as golfer Greg Norman and 1980 and 1984 Olympic decathlon gold medallist Daley Thompson. Norman is scheduled to carry the Olympic torch while both Thompson and Ruth McCaffery-Frainer have already done so. The Irish woman completed her run in the early hours of yesterday morning for her allotted distance of 400 metres.
McCaffery-Frainer, who lived for 15 years in Dublin's Rathgar and is a graduate of the College of Hotel Management, Shannon, carried the torch at 2.04 a.m. Irish time for approximately two minutes along West Pennant Hills near Sydney.
Having worked for the past two years with the marketing department of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Irish woman was one of a number of IOC members scheduled to take part in the procession.
As is tradition, the Olympic flame was lit earlier this year in Greece and has since wended its way around the globe. It arrived in Sydney on Monday.
A total of 11,000 people will have taken part in the torch relay by the time it is completed.
The crowds in Parramatta, another Sydney suburb, were four or five deep, with some standing on the roof of the Woolpack Hotel, and young boys hanging from building rafters, to get a better glimpse of this leg of the relay.
"It's always great to be involved with the Olympics in some way," Thompson said. "It makes you feel very humble - look at the people out there, there's millions along the route."
