Patrick Stewart Carries Olympic Torch

Patrick Stewart made it so today. This afternoon in Croydon, South London, the Star Trek star carried the Olympic torch for a short distance – through the streets and into the St. Andrew’s School -- as the iconic Olympic symbol grows closer and closer to the Olympic Stadium. The torch has been on a 70-day trek through England (not to mention Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and Scotland) on its way to London, host city of the 2012 Summer Olympics. It will, on Friday, be used to light the cauldron during the opening ceremonies of the Summer Games.

Students at the St. Andrew’s School celebrated the torch's arrival with an Olympic-themed sports day, and then were joined for lunch by Stewart and assorted dignitaries. Stewart, speaking to the media after he’d passed the torch, said, “Never mind Jean-Luc Picard, I have attended world premieres of big movies that have not had the excitement and the sense of pleasure and pride that people are exhibiting today. The great thing is it’s the first day of the school holiday, and so all the children are around. It was thrilling. I shall never forget today.”