The torch relay makes its Winter Games debut
Oslo 1952 was notable for the staging a torch relay which paid tribute to Norway’s winter sports heritage. Symbolising unity and peace, the torch relay has prefaced every Olympic Winter Games since.
By today’s standards, the Oslo 1952 torch relay was relatively small in scale. It saw 94 skiers carry the torch 312 kilometres from the valley of Morgedal, in southern Norway, to Oslo, over the course of two and a half days. In contrast, the PyeongChang 2018 Torch Relay involved 7,500 torchbearers, lasted 101 days, and covered a distance of 2,018 kilometres.
Situated in the Telemark region of Norway, Morgedal was chosen as the starting point for the torch relay because it is regarded as the birthplace of slalom and ski jumping. It was for this reason, and because the torch relay did not begin in Olympia, that the International Olympic Committee describes the Oslo 1952 flame as being “symbolic” in nature and not “Olympic”.
The 94th and last torchbearer of 1952 was Eigil Nansen, the grandson of the great Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen. After performing a lap of Bislett Stadium, he unfastened his skis to light the cauldron where the flame burned throughout the two weeks of the Games.