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The Olympic Flame at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics

The Olympic Flame, Olympic Fire, Olympic Torch, Olympic Light, Olympic Eye, and Olympic Sun is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. The modern torch relay was introduced by Carl Diem, president of the Organisation Committee for the Berlin Games of 1936, as part of an effort to turn the games into a glorification of the Third Reich.^[1] Despite its origin, the torch ceremony is still practiced as of 2006.

The torch relay of the 2002 Winter Olympics passes through Cincinnati, Ohio

The Olympic Torch today is ignited several months before the opening celebration of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. Eleven women, representing the roles of priestesses, perform a ceremony in which the torch is kindled by the light of the Sun, its rays concentrated by a parabolic mirror.

Other people have also carried it, often chosen for their personal merits and achievements.

The Olympic Torch Relay ends on the day of the opening ceremony in the central stadium of the Games. The final carrier is often kept secret until the last moment, and is usually a sports celebrity of the host country. The final bearer of the torch runs towards the cauldron, usually placed at the top of a grand staircase, and then uses the torch to start the flame in the stadium. It is generally considered a great honour to be asked to light the Olympic Flame. After being lit, the flame continues to burn throughout the celebration of the Olympics and is extinguished at end of the closing ceremony of the Games.

The 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team tipped torches to a cauldron at the base of this tower, initiating a cascade of fire that rose up the jagged spirals to light the flame at the top, which then burned throughout the 2002 Winter Olympics.

For the ancient Greeks, fire had divine connotations — it was thought to have been stolen from the gods by Prometheus. Therefore, fire was also present at many of the sanctuaries in Olympia, Greece. A fire permanently burned on the altar of Hestia in Olympia, Greece. During the Olympic Games, which honored Zeus, additional fires were lit at his temple and that of his wife, Hera. The modern Olympic flame is ignited at the site where the temple of Hera used to stand.

The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Although most of the time the torch with the Olympic Flame is still carried by runners, it has been transported in many different ways. The fire travelled by boat in 1948 to cross the English Channel, and it was first transported by aeroplane in 1952, when the fire travelled to Helsinki. In 1956, the equestrian events were held separately because of strict quarantine regulations in Australia. All carriers in the torch relay to Stockholm, where these events were held instead, travelled on horseback.

Remarkable means of transportation were used in 1976, when the flame was transformed to a radio signal.^{[citation needed]} From Athens, this signal was carried by satellite to Canada, where it was received and used to trigger a laser beam to re-light the flame. In 2000, the torch was carried under water by divers near the Great Barrier Reef. Other unusual means of transportation include an Native American canoe, a camel, and the Concorde.^[2]

In 2004, the first global torch relay was undertaken, a journey that lasted 78 days. The Olympic flame covered a distance of more than 78,000 km in the hands of some 11,300 torchbearers, travelling to Africa and South America for the first time, visiting all previous Olympic cities and finally returning to Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics. When the Olympic flame came to the Panathinaiko Stadium, stadium of the 1896 Summer Olympics, to start the global torch relay, the night was very windy and the torch, lit by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, blew out due to the wind, but was re-lit from the back up flame taken from the original ceremonial flame at Olympia. This was the second time that the Olympic torch flame was put out. The first occurred at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Canada. After a rainstorm that doused the Olympic flame a few days after the games had opened, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame. The latter was parodied in the 2002 King of the Hill episode Torch Song Hillogy where Hank Hill's attempt at carrying the torch through Arlen Texas appears to end in failure, but his friend Dale uses a cigarette which was lit by the flame to re-ignite the torch.

Another means of catching attention has been the lighting of the fire in the stadium. At the 1992 Barcelona Games, Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo shot a burning arrow over the cauldron from a platform at the opposite end of the stadium. Two years later, the Olympic fire was brought into the stadium of Lillehammer by a ski jumper.

Below is a list of all Olympic torch relays.

Over the years, it has become a tradition to let famous athletes or former athletes be the last runner in the relay. The first well-known athlete to light the fire in the stadium was ninefold Olympic Champion Paavo Nurmi, who excited the home crowd in 1952. Other famous last bearers of the torch include French football star Michel Platini (1992), heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali (1996) and Australian aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman (2000).

On other occasions, the people who lit the fire in the stadium are not famous, but nevertheless symbolise Olympic ideals. Japanese runner Yoshinori Sakai was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day the nuclear weapon Little Boy destroyed that city. He symbolised the rebirth of Japan after the Second World War when he opened the 1964 Tokyo Games. At the 1976 Games in Montreal, two teenagers — one from the French-speaking part of the country, one from the English-speaking part — symbolised the unity of Canada. (Folklore has it that the two were later married, but that was not the case.)

Below is a full list of all persons who ended the Olympic Torch Relay by lighting the flame in the stadium.

• 1936 Summer Olympics: Fritz Schilgen, a track athlete.
• 1948 Summer Olympics: John Mark, a track athlete.
• 1952 Winter Olympics: Eigil Nansen, the grandson of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen
• 1952 Summer Olympics: Paavo Nurmi, winner of nine Olympic gold medals in distance running in the 1920s.
• 1956 Winter Olympics: Guido Caroli, a speed skater who participated in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics. Skating with the torch, he tripped over a television cable but kept the flame burning.
• 1956 Summer Olympics: Ron Clarke and Hans Wikne (Stockholm). Long distance runner Clarke would later win an Olympic bronze medal in 1964 ; Hans Wikne later participated in the 1964 Olympics.
• 1960 Winter Olympics: Ken Henry, Olympic champion in 500 m speed skating at the 1952 Games.
• 1960 Summer Olympics: Giancarlo Peris, track athlete of Greek descent.
• 1964 Winter Olympics: Joseph Rieder, a former alpine skier who had taken part in the 1956 Olympics.
• 1964 Summer Olympics: Yoshinori Sakai, track and field athlete, born on the day the atom bomb exploded over his native Hiroshima.
• 1968 Winter Olympics: Alain Calmat, former figure skater, winner of the silver medal in the 1964 Olympics.
• 1968 Summer Olympics: Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo, a sprinter who participated in these Olympics. She was the first woman to be the last torch bearer.
• 1972 Winter Olympics: Hideki Takada, a student and speed skater.
• 1972 Summer Olympics: Günther Zahn, a middle distance runner.
• 1976 Winter Olympics: Christl Haas and Josef Feistmantl. Haas won the Olympic downhill title in 1964; Feistmantl won the luge doubles in the same year.
• 1976 Summer Olympics: Stéphane Préfontaine and Sandra Henderson, two teenagers.
• 1980 Winter Olympics: Charles Gugino, a professional from Nevada who had been elected from all bearers to run the final part.
• 1980 Summer Olympics: Sergey Belov, basketball player who won four Olympic medals, including a gold in 1972.
• 1984 Winter Olympics: Sanda Dubravčić, a figure skater who participated in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
• 1984 Summer Olympics: Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Olympics.
• 1988 Winter Olympics: Robyn Perry, a 12-year-old schoolgirl and figure skater.
• 1988 Summer Olympics: Sohn Kee-chung, marathon gold medalist in 1936, carried the torch into the stadium, and the relay was continued by Chung Sun-Man, Kim Won-Tak and Sohn Mi-Chung, three young track and field athletes. Kim took part in the Olympic marathon.
• 1992 Winter Olympics: Michel Platini and François-Cyrille Grange, both football players. Platini took part in the Olympics in 1976; Grange was eight years old at the time.
• 1992 Summer Olympics: Antonio Rebollo, an archer who competed in the Paralympic Games.
• 1994 Winter Olympics: Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Both his father and grandfather took part in the Olympics.
• 1996 Summer Olympics: Muhammad Ali, the boxer who, under the name Cassius Clay, won Olympic gold in 1960.
• 1998 Winter Olympics: Midori Ito, figure skater, winner of Olympic silver in 1992.
• 2000 Summer Olympics: Cathy Freeman, a track and field athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 m at these Olympics.
• 2002 Winter Olympics: The entire U.S. ice hockey team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1980.
• 2004 Summer Olympics: Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, windsurfer (Olympic Windsurfing Class), 1996 Olympic gold medalist, 2004 Olympic silver medalist.
• 2006 Winter Olympics: Stefania Belmondo, Italian gold medalist cross-country skier.

The cauldron and the pedestal it sits on are always the subject of unique and often dramatic design. These also tie in with how the cauldron is lit during the Opening Ceremony.

• In Barcelona in 1992, an archer shot a flaming arrow immediately over the cauldron to light it.^[3]
• In Atlanta in 1996, the cauldron was an artistic scroll decorated in red and gold, which some compared to a french fry box from major Olympic sponsor McDonald's and used as an example of the heavy commercialization of those Games. It was lit using a string that traveled the flame from the stadium to its final resting place.^[4] At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, the scroll was lit by a paraplegic climber hoisting himself up a rope to the cauldron.
• For the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Cathy Freeman walked across water and ignited the cauldron through the water, surrounding herself within a ring of fire.
• In the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Stefania Belmondo placed the flame on an arched lighting apparatus, which initiated a series of fireworks before lighting the top of the 57-meter high Olympic Cauldron, the highest in the history of the Olympic Winter Games.^[5]

The torch has raisied disputes about the sovereignty of the regions that it passes, the current 2008 Beijing Games plans for the torch to pass through the island of Taiwan. Taiwan rejected this on the basis that they wished the flame to enter and leave the island/country by a 'third party country', so that the torch will not downgrade Taiwan's sovereignty. Most current reports is that negotiations ceased when Taiwan demanded that the flag and anthem of the Republic of China be displayed on the route, instead with only the Chinese Taipei flag and anthem to be seen, which resulted in its rejection.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Olympic torch

• 2004 Olympic Torch Relay
• Eternal Flame
• Flame of Hope
• International Olympic Committee
• Olympic Oath
• Queen's Baton Relay, an analogous relay associated with the Commonwealth Games
• Panamerican Torch, a torch relay associated with the Panamerican Games
• Asian Games Torch, a torch relay associated with the Asian Games

• Volker Kluge. 1997-2004. Olympische Sommerspiele – Die Chronik. Five volumes. Sportverlag except Vol. 5 (Südwest-Verlag). ISBN 3-328-00715-6; ISBN 3-328-00740-7; ISBN 3-328-00741-5; ISBN 3-328-00830-6; ISBN 3-517-06732-6.

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• IOC brochure on the history of Olympic Flame (1 MB PDF)
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• Olympic Torch, London 1948. Metalwork. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.