First, there was the countdown in Torino, then moments later Friday the Olympic cauldron in Salt Lake City was lit by the man who designed and built it.
Artist Jim Doyle stood by, waiting for word the cauldron had been lit in Italy, host of the 2006 Winter Games. The protocol for relighting an Olympic cauldron is to wait for the current host city to light its flame first.
Waiting in Salt Lake City was a crowd of about 100, comprised of mostly media and former Olympic volunteers.
Suddenly a fountain came to life at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium, home of Utah's Olympic-legacy plaza.
Then, after turning a valve and connecting a plug, the gas-powered, water-cooled cauldron was lit, followed by applause.
"There was some goose bumps," said Doyle, who flew in from Burbank, Calif., for the event.
And there were a few spectators like Marlene Fairchild and her sister, LeeAnn Whitaker, both from Salt Lake City.
"It just brings everything back," Fairchild said. To her, the flame symbolizes the strength and goodness of the human spirit.
There were tears from Joyce Brown, who with her husband, Ben, volunteered in 2002 as drivers for athletes from the Olympic Village.
"We've still got the spirit," Joyce Brown said. She and her husband were wearing their light blue volunteer coats with the Olympic logo.
The Browns still volunteer inside the nearby building that houses a theater.
"We cry every time we see the movies in there," Ben Brown admitted.
Inside that same building, Olympic apparel and pins, now only $1, were being purchased or perused.
There was talk of an Olympic spirit coming back to life from the likes of Ellen Lunt and her son, Christopher, 12, who came from Farmington for the event.
"I felt happy," Christopher said about seeing the cauldron lit again. It was the same feeling he had when Utah hosted the 2002 Games, a moment that Christopher said made the world proud.
And there were, of course, media.
One TV station invited Mark Walker, who was in the news as an Olympics spokesman during the torch relay in 2002. He wasn't aware of the relighting event until called by media.
"It brings back great memories, for sure," Walker said after appearing on TV with two reporters.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com