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Olympic flame hero only told an hour before
RIO DE JANEIRO: Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima knew he would be watching the Rio Games opening ceremony. He just didn’t realize he would be the one walking up to light
Updated on: Aug 8, 2016, 07:17:33 IST
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RIO DE JANEIRO: Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima knew he would be watching the Rio Games opening ceremony. He just didn’t realize he would be the one walking up to light the Olympic flame.
“They substituted me for Pele at the last minute, man! It was a surprise, I wasn’t expecting it,” he said.
The marathon runner, whose heart-warming story of a 2004 bronze medal at the Athens Games endeared him to Brazil, said he was given the honour with barely an hour to go.
Pele had been Olympic organisers’ first choice. But the 75-year-old confirmed only on Friday that his health would not make it possible for him to climb the steps to the cauldron.
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