Columnist Susan Snyder: Old news is good news to torchbearer

Friday, Feb. 15, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

It's been a week since the torchbearers carried the Olympic flame into the 2002 Winter Games arena in Salt Lake City.

It's been almost two weeks since Richard Leonard toted it through Springdale, Utah. And in an instant- information society, that's old news.

Unless, however, you are Leonard or the younger brother who nominated him.

Randy Leonard, 46, and his torch-bearing brother Richard, 50, grew up in Las Vegas. Randy still lives here. Richard is a U.S. Navy hospital chief stationed on Okinawa. While cruising the Internet this summer, Randy found the torchbearer nomination website. And he named his brother.

"He's always good at everything he does," Randy said. "I guess I'm still that little brother who is tagging after him."

Richard carried the torch Feb. 4, along with a 17-year-old Las Vegas teen who volunteers at a center for children with Down syndrome, a Las Vegas firefighter and a cancer survivor.

He says he was honored to share the experience with such people.

"We got a chance to share what it meant to be there. We got to hear each other's stories," Richard said. "People had such amazing stories."

The white suit, hat and gloves he wore are tucked away in plastic in his mom's Las Vegas house. She's keeping the 3-foot-long torch, too, for now. Richard feared it wouldn't survive the trip overseas.

He still marvels that for 2/10 of a mile he was the only person on the planet carrying the flame.

"There were 11,520 torchbearers, and that's a lot of people. But when you think of the total number of people you represent in the United States -- like, 275 million? -- you're kind of dwarfed in comparison," Richard said. "The responsibility becomes even greater."

On Okinawa Richard counsels young sailors on plotting their futures and finding their strengths. He ran his hand over the torch handle and its engraved slogan, "Light the Fire Within."

"Somewhere down inside, you dig deep to find the strength," he said quietly.

"This was our one moment. We'll always remember it," he added. "But now we go back and just do the job we need to do every day. That's the same thing the Olympians do."

Randy Leonard pulled out all the stops trying to get his brother some local recognition. He first beat on Brand X, the other Las Vegas daily newspaper.

"The editor said the story was old, and I guess I am stubborn enough to try to get you to print a story on Richard and how proud we were to see him carry the torch," Randy wrote in an e-mail to the Sun.

We should be proud of all the valley residents who carried the torch. Those who joined Richard in Southern Utah Feb. 4 and 5 were:

Breeann Bergthold, Timothy Fagan, Nicholas Gausling, James Harris, Jay Heller, Kimberly Leinbach, Amber Lyons, Kevin Mahoney, Patrick McCarrick, Matthew Merryman, Katherine Miller, Adrienne O'Donoghue, Mark Stewart, James Watson, Lauren Watson and David Wignall, all of Las Vegas; Jeff Payne, Eric Poleski and Morgan Strelow, of Henderson; and Lexie Willard, of Overton.

Old news? Maybe to some.

But not if it was you -- or your brother.