Wichita — The Olympic flame arrived Friday in Wichita, the city where the 14,000 torches used to carry it across the nation were designed and built.
Todd McCutcheon, a systems analyst for Love Box Co., started off the first leg of the 7.6-mile relay through the state's largest city. The train bearing the flame arrived about 2 hours and 15 minutes behind schedule.
Ahmad Corbitt, a spokesman for the Olympics, said there was a problem with the cauldron in which the flame burns that had to be handled in Omaha, Neb., before the train could proceed.
The delay didn't dampen McCutcheon's enthusiasm: "It draws out the anticipation."
When the train reached Wichita about 9:15 a.m., McCutcheon went to the cauldron car to light his torch from the flame and started off amid cheers from a flag-waving crowd more than 2,000 strong at the former Union Station in downtown Wichita.
They cheered Wes Santee, the distance runner and member of the 1952 U.S. Olympic team, who'd been a torchbearer when the Olympic flame came through Kansas in 1996.
"Those of us who competed in the Olympic competition, that has got to be the greatest thing in our lives," he said.
Richard Long, a senior project engineer with Wichita's Coleman Co., helped design and build the torches for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
"This is exciting, this is what we worked for for six months," said Long as he waited for the next runner to carry the flame.
He had gone to Greece for the lighting of the flame, but said Friday's experience of seeing the torch pass through his hometown was more meaningful because his family was there to enjoy it with him.
That the torch was built in Wichita thrilled Wichitan Joanne Edwards: "It gives you a little pride about being from the Midwest."
Valley Center resident Tim Ford came to see the torch run with his 13-year-old son, Matt, for a chance to see a bit of history.
"We can't afford to go to Salt Lake City ... it gave us a chance to be part of it," Ford said.
Earlier, about 250 people turned out in subfreezing weather in Topeka as the train bearing the flame arrived there about 3:25 a.m. There was a short ceremony followed by an hour-long trip though the capital city.
Topeka resident Ace Cleavinger said he wasn't bothered by the early hour or the 28-degree temperature.
"It's a matter of America and what it stands for," he said, "and it gives the people an opportunity to become a unit of patriotism."
Each runners carries the silver and copper torch for two-tenths of a mile, passing only its flame to the next participant.
The flame's tour began Dec. 4 in Atlanta and ends, about 11,500 runners later, in Salt Lake City at the Feb. 8 opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Games.
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