However, the International Olympic Committee IOC keeps backup lanterns on hand that were lit from the same flame as the Olympic torch at the original ceremony back in Olympia. The IOC has a protocol in place for relighting an extinguished torch. It blew out the flame, so I had to stop to receive a replacement torch from the car behind me carrying the mother lamp.
The second time, I got the original torch back, lit again from the mother lamp in the car. According to Bijkerk, the mother lamp is kept in the car that trails the relay runners is much like a mining lamp used in the old coal mines. With its own security retinue, a message of peace and cooperation, and a mother lamp never far away, what could go wrong? Oh, lots.
In , two unsuccessful attempts were made by bystanders to extinguish the torch, one with a bucket of water and the other with a fire extinguisher. Back in , the torch relay through Paris for the Beijing Olympic Games was protested due to Communist China's treatment of Tibet, and the torch was extinguished and relit no fewer than three times, although French officials claim it was more like five. The Montreal Summer Games was one of most disorganized in Olympics history — due to a construction strike, the roof of the Olympic Stadium wasn't finished by the time the games began.
When the flame in the cauldron was doused by a rainstorm and a backup nowhere to be found, a well-meaning security guard relit it with his lighter. The International Olympic Committee said it was up to the Games organisers to choose the location. We are fully supportive of that. This article is more than 9 years old. It was only in the Helsinki Olympics that a modern, yet elemental, cauldron made its debut.
Here, Paavo Nurmi, the legendary Finnish long distance runner, ignited a simple bowl supported on five slender legs. One of the most memorable moments in Olympic history was when an archer fired a flaming arrow into the cauldron, or so it seemed, at the games Credit: Getty Images.
Since then, perhaps the most successful Olympic cauldrons have been simple and restrained, reflecting the taut, lithe nature of athletics and the timeless appeal of these games. Tokyo featured a simple cauldron shaped like an upturned bell from a Shinto shrine in Montreal showed a minimalist steel bowl on the slimmest steel pole in , and, while more ambitious in formal design terms, the tall cauldron of the Olympics in Turin, resembling a cross between an industrial chimney and a Jewish havdalah candle, was fundamentally simple, too.
The momentum, though, remains in favour of circus-like spectacle. Visual restraint is not the order of the 21st Century Olympic day. There have, however, been moments when the bearer of the flame has outshone the most ambitious Olympic cauldron. Muhammad Ali, who won a gold medal for boxing in the Rome Olympics, lit the flame at the Atlanta games. It took sheer strength of will for the world-feted boxer to light the fuse that sent a flaming ball up into the red and gold cauldron high above him.
It was a truly Olympian moment. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. Olympics: Who attends the Closing Ceremony? Next: Best Olympian from each state. Top Stories. S Men's Curling Team. More NFL Rumors ». View all NFL Sites. More NBA News ». More NBA Rumors ». View all NBA Sites. More MLB News ». More MLB Rumors ».
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