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Be a teenage push-up king, put a little "green" in your life or help make Canada a better place to live by taking shorter showers.

These are all ways Canadians can get a shot at the memorable experience of running a leg of the celebrated Olympic torch relay that will crisscross the country from Victoria to Newfoundland and back to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.

The relay's two corporate sponsors, Coca-Cola and RBC, have 4,500 torchbearer positions each for the 45,000-kilometre, 106-day journey through the Canadian winter, and neither company wants to award any spots to couch potatoes or societal slackers.

"Simply put, our motto will be 'live active, live green,'" Nicola Kettlitz, general manager of Coca-Cola's Olympic Project Team, said Friday as long-awaited details of the route and how to apply to brandish the flame were unveiled before hundreds of excited supporters at an arts auditorium in affluent West Vancouver.

More than 1,000 teenagers who participate in a physical activity plan known as Sogo Active will be selected for the relay, while most of Coke's remaining positions will be allocated by lottery to Canadians committed to making a difference under an alternative slogan "Live Olympic on the Coke Side of Life."

"Details haven't been ironed out yet, but it's all about doing something for yourself and your community," said Coca-Cola's public affairs manager Kirsten Mihailides.

More than 2,000 of the RBC-sponsored torchbearers will also be selected at random, from among applicants making a personal, online pledge to do something "small or large in their daily live that will make Canada an even better place," according to the big financial institution.

Examples listed on RBC's torch-relay website include a commitment to hang laundry out to dry, take public transit, give up a seat on a bus or train, vote in the next election or spend less time in the shower.

Anyone making an appropriate pledge will earn a chance to carry the Olympic torch, said RBC's regional vice-president Graham MacLachlan.

Asked whether lame vows such as skipping fewer classes or showing up for work on time would qualify, Mr. MacLachlan said pledges would be vetted. "There will be rules, yes."

Interest in the Olympic torch relay, one of the signature events of any Olympics, is expected to be intense. For the Calgary Winter Games in 1988, 6.6 million Canadians applied to then-sponsor Petro-Canada for one of the 6,550 torchbearer positions.

"We certainly hope millions will apply again," Mr. MacLachlan said. Each leg of the $35-million relay will be 500 metres long.

All told, the Olympic flame will pass through more than 1,000 communities on its unprecedented journey across the land, including 115 aboriginal locations, Cape Spear on the tip of Newfoundland and the Canadian Forces Base way up north at Alert, said to be the northernmost settlement in the world.

Games organizers called it the longest torch run in a single country in Olympic history, with 26,000 kilometres to be traversed by foot, 18,000 by air and 1,000 by water. More than 100 different modes of transportation will be used by the 12,000 total torchbearers.

After the ceremonial lighting in Greece the day before, the Olympic flame begins its marathon trek Oct. 30 in Victoria. Five more days will be spent in the host province of B.C. before the relay heads across the country, concluding with 22 days carrying the torch through almost every community in the province.

An emotional John Furlong, head of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games, called yesterday "a magical day we've been dreaming of for years." He said planners had worked for two years to try to bring the torch relay to as many Canadians as possible, and managed to determine a route within an hour drive of 90 per cent of the country's population.