TORONTO — Organizers for the Pan Am Games say one of challenges of planning a gravity-defying sequence at Friday's open ceremony — which included a Donovan Bailey stunt double base-jumping off the CN Tower — was keeping it under wraps.
The Games organizing committee says that before Friday's ceremony, only three people had seen the pre-recorded scene that depicted the star Canadian sprinter carrying the torch at the top of the CN Tower before appearing to jump off the 553-metre-high structure.
While fans were left to wonder Friday night just who exactly made the jump, organizers confirmed Saturday morning that it was a stunt double, not Bailey himself, who performed the daring leap.
Games staff say when people caught glimpses of the crew during the May filming, or saw smoke coming from the iconic Toronto landmark on the eve of the ceremony, they had a simple strategy: deny, deny, deny.
Games organizers say staff and participants were told to keep details of the show to themselves in order to maintain the element of surprise.
The video began with members of Canada's gold medal-winning 4x100-metre relay team from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics running the torch around Toronto and eventually to the top of the CN Tower.
There, Olympic gold-medallist Bruny Surin trotted around the apex of the tower before handing it to Bailey.
