The Story of the Olympic Torch

It cooks our food, keeps us warm, and lights our way through the dark. The ancient Greeks revered the power and fire. In Greek mythology, the god Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humans. To celebrate the passing of fire from Prometheus to man, the Greeks would hold relay races.

Athletes would pass a lit torch to one another until the winner reached the finish line.

The Greeks held their first Olympic Games in B. The Games, held every four years at Olympia, honored Zeus and other Greek gods. The Olympics also marked the beginning of a period of peace for the often warring Greeks. The torch was first transported by aeroplane in when the fire travelled to Helsinki. The Olympic Torch was carried into outer space by astronauts before the Atlanta and the Sydney Olympic Games.

The story of the Olympic torch

In , the flame was transmitted from Athens to Ottawa via a radio signal which was used to trigger a Laser beam to produce the flame. Before the s Munich, only male athletes carried the torch.

The first and last torch-bearers are often famous members of the sporting community. Sometimes, other people of social significance have been given the opportunity to light the cauldron, and be the final torch-bearer. In the Tokyo Olympics, runner Yoshinori Sakai, who was born in on the day the atom bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, got the privilege to light the cauldron marking the commencement of the Games. The design of the torches, which changes for every Olympic games, are sometimes based on a classical conception, and at other times, representing the local flavour of the host city.

The torch for the Turin Olympics was criticised as being too heavy for the runners.

The designs, as well as the chemistry of the torches, have changed through the years. Early torches often used solid and liquid fuels, including olive oil, while the latest ones use liquefied gas for lighting the flame. The torch has also been carried by swimmers just above and under water in the Grenoble Winter Games and the Sydney Games respectively. Our site uses cookies to deliver a better experience.

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This went disastrously wrong in , when the Olympics where held in Melbourne. The engineers had put a combination of magnesium and aluminum inside the torch so the flame would sparkle and burn brightly. But it also spewed bits of hot metal and sparks that burned the arm of the poor torch-bearer. Now, designers mostly use liquid fuels that have a more brilliant or larger flame to increase the visibility.

No matter what, though, the flame you see igniting the cauldron at the opening ceremony did somehow come from a fire lit in Olympia.

Olympic flame

It just takes an intricate system of backups and contingency plans to do it. And even if all of those plans failed, rest assured that you will never know the difference. This article previously listed Pikes Peak as 15, feet tall, when in fact it is 14, feet tall. Thanks to the mountain enthusiasts for keeping us honest.

Each torch only burns for a short while

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The Olympic cauldron at the Vancouver Games. The original torch used in the Berlin Games.

Olympic Flame - The Amazing Story of the Olympic Flame

The Olympic flame is lit with a mirror The original Olympics looked almost nothing like the modern ones, but we like to draw on the ancient origins and so we still hold a ceremony at their birthplace: A backup Olympic flame from the Vancouver Games. Each torch only burns for a short while As the relay moves along its course, each torch-bearer only carries a lit flame for a short while—about 20 minutes according to one report. Liquid fuel allows the flame to reignite itself The Munich games were the first to use liquid fuel, which today is usually some combination of butane, propane, and propylene.