Adrianne Shepherd
Independent reporter
When Susan Sloan came home from the 1976 Montreal Olympics with a bronze medal after swimming the butterfly in the 4x100 medley relay, she made Canada and Stettler very proud.
Now a resident of the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, Susan Kelsey is going to be an Olympic torchbearer for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
In principle, anyone can apply to be a torch bearer and then it is a lottery system to see who will be selected. However medalists from the 1976 games in Montreal and the 1988 games in Calgary were specially invited to be torch bearers.
“I was thrilled,” she said about her response when asked to be a torchbearer.
Kelsey will carry the torch through the town of Ladysmith, which is located on Vancouver Island.
Although she is no longer directly involved in the sport of swimming, Kelsey is the chair of the Comox Valley Spirit of B.C. Committee.
She asked not to carry the torch through the Comox Valley because she will already be involved with the events hosted in the area, and requested to carry it through any other location on the island.
“I will be spending a fair bit of time in Vancouver promoting the Comox Valley,” she said.
Although she said that she was headed to Vancouver on business, she hopes to take in some of the games.
Kelsey began swimming at the age of 10 in Stettler and was coached by Larry Nielsen until she moved to Vancouver at the age of 17 to continue training.
Kelsey only had the opportunity to participate in the Olympics once because Canada boycotted the Olympics in 1980 due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
She said she registered for the swim club when the pool that was located by the schools was built because it was new and everyone was joining the club.
Kelsey says she has not been back to Stettler for a while, as her family no longer resides in the area.