Cathy Freeman, the 400-meter world champion, took the torch, climbed a set of stairs and stepped into a pool beside a waterfall cascading from the top of the stadium's second tier. She bent and lit a circle of flame, which turned out to be the inner rim of a nine-ton platter of steel, the Olympic cauldron, which rose above her like a spaceship.

--from "Torch Song" by Gary Smith, Sports Illustrated, September 25, 2000