Lighting the Olympic cauldron, even at a Games somewhat deflated by the coronavirus pandemic, is one of the highest honors in sport. Names as big as Wayne Gretzky and Muhammad Ali have done it, but so have an obscure archer and a 12-year-old schoolgirl.
So predicting who will do it at this year’s opening ceremony Friday must be a near impossible task, right?
Well consider that The New York Times correctly predicted in 2016 that Vanderlei de Lima, a marathon bronze medalist, would get the honor. In 2012, a group of unknown teenagers were chosen to light the cauldron, but our pick of rower Steven Redgrave was the last prominent athlete to hold the torch, so we are taking partial credit.