In the sanctuary of Olympia, where the ancient Games took place, a flame burnt permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia, but transportation of the flame to the site of the modern Olympics did not happen until the 1936 Games in Berlin. It was Carl Diem, Hitler's Games organizer, who proposed a torch relay from the site of the ancient flame. Today, the International Olympic Committee says that the torch "transmits a message of peace and friendship amongst peoples". Extra info; The organizers of the London 2012 Olympics will however most likely bring to an end the torch relay as we know it. The new plan is to take the Olympic torch on a "sports heritage" tour of Britain in 2012, rather than a round-the-world relay under a plan being touted by embattled Olympic chiefs. Worried about the damage caused by Beijing's controversial international relay, which became a focus of violent protests by Free Tibet protesters, they want a gentler countdown to the 2012 Games in London. Instead of being carried through global capitals and trouble spots, the torch could instead take in classic British sporting venues in 2012.
I just learned this myself from the history channel, but the tradition of the Olympic torch coming to the games comes from Hitler when he held the games in Germany. That is where the tradition started. He used the story of an eternal torch at Mt. Olympus to create the idea of the torch coming to the games.
The Olympic torch relay was invented in 1936.
The Olympic torch was first lit in Olympia with a mirror focusing the beam of the sun onto the torch.
london
There was no torch. The Olympic torch was made up in 1936. The Olympic torch was invented as a way of symbolically creating a connection between Olympia in Greece and an athletics meeting in some city like Berlin. The ancient Olympics didn't need a symbolic connection to Olympia because they were actually held at Olympia.
Athens in Greece
1989
Before 1896, the year of the first Olympics.
The Olympic torch relay was invented in 1936.
Mr turner
the torch was first lit in Greece
The Olympic torch was first lit in Olympia with a mirror focusing the beam of the sun onto the torch.
The Olympic torch start at Athens, Greece because that is where the first Olympics were held.
No, there is not a summer and a winter olympic torch. There is only one torch. At the first olympic games ever held, the torch was lit, and it will never go out, so it just gets passed on to all of the olympic games that are held.
me
1936
GrEeCe
Greece