Olympic Torch Relay Story

9 min
THE FIRST TORCH BEARER

(LOCOG)

The Olympic Torch Relay

What is the Olympic torch relay?

A few months before the opening of the Olympic Games, a flame is lit at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. From there, the flame is carried by torch for a number of weeks to the host city, mainly on foot by runners, but also using other forms of transport.

Throughout the torch relay, the flame announces the arrival of the Olympic Games and spreads a message of peace and friendship between peoples. The relay ends at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The final runner (or sometimes runners) enters the stadium and lights the cauldron with the Olympic flame. The Games are officially open!

Origins of the Olympic torch relay

The ancient Greeks considered fire to be a divine element, and they maintained perpetual fires in front of their principal temples. This was the case in the sanctuary of Olympia, where the ancient Olympic Games took place. The flame for these sacred fires was lit using the rays of the sun (to ensure its purity, and a skaphia, the ancestor of the parabolic mirror used today for lighting the Olympic flame. A flame burned permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia, and such fires were also lit on the altars of the temples of Zeus and Hera every four years during the Olympic Games.

The modern Olympic flame is ignited at the site where the temple of Hera used to stand in a ceremony of great symbolic importance - one that binds the ancient and modern versions of the Games firmly together.

However, it was some time after the advent of the modern Games at Athens 1896 that the event returned to what was the site of the ancient Games. Indeed, it was not until Amsterdam 1928 that the flame even made its first appearance of the modern age, being lit for the occasion on a tower looking out over the Olympic Stadium, the venue for the athletics events. The Olympic flame has been part of the Summer Olympics ever since (the Olympic flame was first introduced to the Winter Olympics at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen).

In the lead-up to Berlin 1936, however, it was decided to take the ceremony back to its roots in Olympia, where the flame has been lit for every Olympic Summer Games since. That decision coincided with the creation of the Olympic Torch Relay by the Secretary General of the Organising Committee of the Games of the XI Olympiad, Carl Diem.

Inspired by torch races that were held in ancient Greece (known as lampadedromia), Diem suggested that for the 1936 Summer Games a flame be lit in Olympia and transported to Berlin for what would be the first Olympic Torch Relay (the inaugural Olympic Winter Games Torch Relay was held at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo).

Diem's idea has since become enshrined in Rule 13 of the Olympic Charter, which states: “The Olympic flame is the flame which is kindled in Olympia under the authority of the IOC.”

Lighting the Olympic flame

The Olympic fire is ignited several months before the opening ceremony of the Games in Olympia, Greece. A parabolic mirror is used to catch the sun’s rays and ignite strips of old camera film placed inside the bowl of a specially designed torch made from silver and inspired by the design of the pillars inside the Temple of the Goddess Hera. This torch is distinct from the ones that will be used during the relay. The Olympic Flame lighting ceremony at Olympia has been in place for the Summer and Winter Olympics since 1936 and 1964, respectively.

The responsibility for organising the ceremony itself has always lain with the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC), which also organises the subsequent transporting of the flame by runners to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, one of the venues for the 1896 Games.

Once the flame arrives in Athens, the rest of the relay to the host city of the Games is handled by the Olympic Games Organising Committee (OCOG). This Committee chooses the theme of the relay, which then helps them determine the cities, towns, regions and monuments to be visited, as well as the different modes of transporting the Olympic flame.

Routes of the Olympic torch relay

Until 2008, the flame usually travelled through several countries before arriving at its final destination.

Since 2010, the torch relay has mainly taken place in Greece and the country of the host city, where the flame is directly transported from Athens.

There have been several notable Olympic torch relays over the years, including the following:

THE RELAY OF PEACE - LONDON 1948

In a Europe sorely afflicted by the war, the 1948 relay carried a welcome message of peace. The first runner, Corporal Dimitrelis, took off his military uniform before carrying the flame, commemorating the sacred truce observed in Ancient Greece. The planned route highlighted border crossings, where festivities were organised to celebrate the return of peace. In homage to the restorer of the Olympic Games, the relay passed through Lausanne, Switzerland and a ceremony was organised at Pierre de Coubertin's tomb in the Bois-de-Vaux cemetery.

THE ANCIENT RELAY – ROME 1960

The relay shone the spotlight on the two pillars of classical civilisation: Athens and Rome. Lesser-known ancient sites in Greece and Italy were thus brought to the public's attention. For the first time, the relay was televised and the event closely followed by the media.

THE RELAY TO THE NEW WORLD – MEXICO CITY 1968

The relay retraced the steps of Christopher Columbus to the New World. The idea was to underline the link between Mediterranean and Latin American civilisations and between ancient (Greco-Latin) and pre-Hispanic civilisations. A direct descendant of the great navigator, Cristóbal Colón de Carbajal, was the last runner on Spanish soil. The Olympic flame made a stop at the Great Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan. A “New Fire” ceremony was organised which, in the Aztec tradition, was celebrated to mark the end of a 52-year cycle. The reappearance of the sun at dawn symbolised the renewal of the world.

THE KOREAN RELAY “HARMONY AND PROGRESS”– SEOUL 1988

The relay showcased the traditions of Korea. Its route, which was a zigzag from east to west, symbolised the harmony to be found in the balance between two opposite poles. Some of the torchbearers did not wear the official uniform provided by the Games Organising Committee, but instead wore regional or traditional costumes.

THE “DOWN UNDER” RELAY – SYDNEY 2000

The relay had a twofold goal: to situate Australia within Oceania and to promote the culture and heritage of the different regions in the country. The torch relay visited 12 Oceanic countries before it arrived in Australia. The start of the relay on the Australian continent was in the “red centre” at Uluru (Ayer‟s Rock), a sacred site for the indigenous population. Aboriginal athlete and Olympic field hockey champion Nova Peris-Kneebone was the first runner in the relay. One million spectators welcomed the arrival of the flame in Sydney. In a ceremony that recalled the elements used in the design of the torch (fire, water, earth), Cathy Freeman “walked on water” before lighting a circle of fire which revealed itself to be the monumental cauldron.

Transporting the Olympic torch

Traditionally, relays have been carried out on foot (the relays of Berlin 1936, London 1948 and Moscow 1980 were entirely run in this way). But as the celebration of the Olympic Games has evolved, so has the Olympic torch relay. The modes of transport have slowly become more and more diversified, not only for practical reasons, but also to showcase the particularities of the regions crossed.

THE FLAME IN THE SNOW

Legendary Norwegian skiers (or their descendants) carried out the entirety of the transport of the flame (Oslo 1952). The flame went into the Arctic Circle at Inuvik, with stages carried out by snow-bike (Calgary 1988), the flame has also visited Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited community in the world (Vancouver 2010).

THE FLAME IN THE WATER, ON THE WATER AND UNDERWATER

In the sea off Veracruz, Mexico, swimmers carried the flame from the boat Durango to the shore (Mexico 1968). A diver swam across the port of Marseilles holding the flame out of the water (Grenoble 1968). The flame travelled on the frigate Cataluña for the passage between Greece and Spain and arrived on Spanish soil in Empuries, the gateway to Greek civilisation on the Iberian peninsular (circa 600 B.C.) (Barcelona 1992). A diver even carried the flame underwater at the Great Barrier Reef (Sydney 2000). In Venise, a Gondola was used to cross the Canal Grande (Torino 2006) and for the 2010 relay, the flame was carried by a surfer (Vancouver 2010).

THE FLAME IN THE AIR, THROUGH THE AIR AND IN SPACE

The flame made its first trip in an aeroplane (Oslo 1952). It later travelled faster than the speed of sound on its journey from Athens to Paris – aboard the Concorde! (Albertville 1992). The wonders of technology were highlighted when the Canadians organized the transmission of the flame by satellite between Athens and Ottawa (Montreal 1976). For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the transfer of the flame took place between two parachute jumpers (Lillehammer 1994). It also made an impressive entry at the opening ceremony of the Games, carried by a ski jumper during his actual jump! (Lillehammer 1994). The torch (but not the flame) was carried into space by astronauts (Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Sochi 2014).

THE FLAME ON HORSEBACK AND ON A CAMEL

To mark the fact that the equestrian events were held separately from the other Olympic events, the torchbearers for the journey of the flame from Kastrup (Denmark) to Stockholm carried the flame entirely on horseback (Melbourne/Stockholm 1956). Horses played a special role again when the history of the Pony express was featured as a part of a torch relay (Atlanta 1996). They were replaced by camels when the flame crossed the Australian desert (Sydney 2000).

THE FLAME AND THE WILD WEST

For the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, the modes of transport that were used bring to mind great moments in American history. For example, the flame travelled in a Native American canoe, on a Mississippi steamboat, and on a wagon of the Union Pacific (the first transcontinental railroad) (Atlanta 1996).