101-year-old man trains for Winter Olympic torch relay with flame-shaped frozen salmon

A Siberian centenarian has been using a frozen fish to help him prepare for his part in the Olympic torch relay for the Sochi Winter Games. Alexander Kaptarenko, 101, says he has been getting in shape for his leg of the relay by using a flame-shaped frozen humpback salmon as a stand-in for the Olympic flame.



The torch relay ahead of next year’s Sochi Winter Olympics began in Moscow’s Red Square on October 7 and is set to take in all of Russia's 83 regions on a 56,000-kilometre (35,000-mile) trip. The torch is passing through his home city of Novosibirsk next month, and the centenarian ping pong enthusiast doesn’t want to be left out of the action.

“Nobody gave me a torch [to train with], they didn't even promise one, and you need train. But how do you train?” he said. “This guy, Ruslan, gave me four small dumbbells, half a kilo each, but they're hard to hold, while a fish, big and all, can be held by its tail, thank God.”



The retiree was inspired by plans for a salmon dinner one evening and took to parading a 1.3 kilogram (2.9 pound) fish around his apartment. He has now graduated to walking outside with a heavier salmon that should be closer in shape and size to the 2.9 kilogram torch. Kaptarenko says that although he has no plan of missing out on taking part in the relay, he hopes organizers will account for his age and reduce the standard relay distance from 200 metres to 50 metres.