Squaw Valley 1960The Torch

Route Design and Details

As for the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, it was a “symbolic Nordic” flame lit in Morgedal in Norway in the hearth of the house where Sondre Norheim, the pioneer of modern skiing, was born. The flame was originally to have been lit in Olympia. However, the Hellenic Olympic Committee, informed a month before the Games, did not have enough time to organise a lighting ceremony. Instead, the Organising Committee looked to Norway.

After being transported by car to Copenhagen via Oslo, the flame was flown to Los Angeles. From there, the relay took it through California to Squaw Valley.

On the day of the Opening Ceremony, the torch was carried by American skier Andrea Mead Lawrence. She was accompanied by eight members of the National Ski Patrol. The flame was passed to the last torchbearer, skater Kenneth Charles Henry, who did a lap of the ice in front of the Blyth Memorial Arena before lighting the cauldron in which the flame would burn throughout the Games.

Map of the Route

Facts and Figures

Start date: 31 January 1960, Morgedal (Norway)

End date: 18 February 1960, Blyth Memorial Arena, Squaw Valley (United States)

First torchbearer: Olav Nordskog, a young Norwegian skier

Last torchbearers: Kenneth Charles Henry, Olympic participant in speed skating (1948, 1952, 1956), gold medallist in Oslo 1952

Number of torchbearers: More than 600

Recruitment of torchbearers: -

Distance: -

Countries visited: Norway, Denmark, United States

Torch Details

Description: The torch recalls the model of Melbourne 1956, Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 and London in 1948. It bore the inscription: “VIII Olympic Winter Games 1960 Olympia to Squaw Valley”.

Colour: Silver

Length: 48.5cm

Composition: Aluminium

Fuel: Bottled propane gas

Designer / Manufacturer: John Hench, Ralph Lavers / -