Jack Mallette carried a torch to Greenwood’s City Hall Wednesday as part of a nine-city tour to draw attention to the State Games of Mississippi.
Mallette, 61, who has family ties to Greenwood, stopped briefly on his run to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the games.
Mallette has competed in all but two of the State Games, winning more than 200 medals in swimming alone. He was the 2004 Male Athlete of the Year.
The brief ceremony also paid homage to five-time Olympian Willye B. White, formerly of Greenwood, who died in 2007.
“Willye B. White was only 16 when she won her first silver medal in Melbourne, Australia, so she was a good friend to the games,” said Krilecia Gianakos, director of marketing and development for the State Games.
At the Melbourne Olympics, held in 1956, White won that silver medal in the long jump, becoming the first American woman to win a medal in that event. She also won a second silver medal in 1964 in Tokyo as part of a team competing in a 400-meter relay.
White and Ralph Boston, a native of Laurel, came to the State Games each year along with other Olympians, and White led the athlete’s oath, Gianakos said.
Boston won a gold medal in the long jump at the Olympics in Rome in 1960. He returned and took the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and a bronze medal at the Mexico City games in 1968.
Gianakos said the torch will pass through 350 communities on its journey to Meridian, where the opening ceremonies will be held on June 17.
She said more than 220 athletes from the Greenwood area have participated in individual events at the Games.
Today, the torch will arrive in Jackson at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. From there the flame will head to Natchez, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Laurel and Choctaw before arriving in Meridian, where it will be used to light the official cauldron.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
