Fitness instructor Cia Tweel carries the Olympic Torch along the lower part of Quinpool Road on Nov. 18. Tweel was chosen to carry the torch through RBC’s Carry the Torch contest.

By Lindsay Jones – The Weekly News
Cia Tweel says she felt like royalty as she carried the Olympic Torch up the lower part of Quinpool Road.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said Tweel, a longtime Halifax fitness instructor who carried the torch from Prince Arthur Street to Bloomingdale Terrace. “I feel so honoured. I went downtown afterward with my suit on and so did all the other torchbearers and it was amazing the reaction you got from people, just saying ‘Congratulations! You’re doing such a good thing.’ The little kids — they get so excited. They just wave and go ‘Mommy, mommy, there’s a torchbearer.’”
While some told her Sidney Crosby stole her thunder at the Nov. 18 event that culminated with the Pittsburgh Penguins captain and Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Sarah Conrad in downtown Halifax, Tweel doesn’t think so. She says she too felt like a celebrity. “It’s like the ordinary Canadians also get a lot of attention,” Tweel added.
As thousands of fans descended on the downtown for the celebration in Grand Parade, hundreds lined up along Quinpool Road to watch the Olympic torch relay.
Business owners and employees along the busy commercial strip stood outside their shops waving Canadian Olympic flags. Bank employees handed out tambourines and noisemakers to the crowd as Olympic floats blasting dance music warmed up the crowd. A crew of McDonald’s employees ran outside with trays of warm drinks to hand out to the pep rally crew on the floats as people whooped and cheered.
Jamie Clarke Caseley joined more than 100 others along Quinpool to watch her brother, 18-year-old  Jesse Clarke, run by with the torch.
“It’s pretty exciting just seeing all the people out here all pumped,” said the 13-year-old from Brookside.
As Clarke jogged up a busy intersection on Quinpool, where police directed the gridlocked rush hour traffic, cars honked and beeped in support.
Cathy Langille and her young daughter Clare put on the Olympic Games caps and drove in from Hammonds Plains to see the torch and head down to join the party in Grand Parade.
“I was in Calgary for the ’88 Olympics so I knew it would be exciting,” said Langille. “I thought it would be a fun experience because it’s not very often that you get to see an Olympic Torch go by.”
Meanwhile, even though the event is long over, Tweel is still feeling Olympic fever. At Dalhousie University, where she works as an executive field work secretary at the School of Occupational Therapy, students and colleagues are continuing to congratulate her. As a reminder of what she calls her “Olympic moment,” Tweel decided to purchase her torch for $350, plus $50 for a stand and tax.
“I think it’s well worth it,” said Tweel, who’s also a personal trainer and has taught dance and fitness classes for 30 years. “I’m actually going to take the torch to some of my classes.”
Tweel was chosen to carry the torch through RBC’s Carry the Torch Contest, which involved making a pledge to better Canada.
Her pledge was to help Canadians get fit, one person at a time, from age five up to 90, throw in a bit of fun and that would make a fitter, happier Canada.
ljones@hfxnews.ca