Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay

[Ikarus360]

^^ I think the Atlanta '96 one began at the L.A. Colosseum since it was the host of the last American Olympics. Nagano had three relays at the same time, one starting in Hokkaido and the other in Okinawa. The third one began in Kagoshima.

[Victor Mata]

Atlanta's Olympic Torch Relay, yes: it started at the LA Colosseum. But not the Paralympic Relay.

[baron-pierreIV]

Just some corrections

2. Atlanta's was lit from an undying flame related to the tomb of MLK and the relay was launched from Washington

OK, so that cleared it up. I couldn't figure that out for awhile--in that they lit it at MLK's grave in Atlanta...and then I guess it got flown to DC and started at the White House. Nobody's ever made that complicated a domestic arrangement before....and then to bring it home to Atlanta again. Strange backtracking.

[world atlas]

The Olympic flame will arrive in Moscow today

[gotosy]

Special flight SU7101 to take the Olympic Flame to Moscow.

https://twitter.com/DChernyshenko/status/386800188888989696

The Olympic flame has touched down Russia

[ofan]

Looks like Hell's Angels is leading the Sochi Relay motorcade.

[Colonel Iredale]

Hilarious that after only two runners, the Flame went out and someone ran over with a cigarette lighter to relight it!!

[Colonel Iredale]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5U-B7OLwWg @ 02:21:00

[baron-pierreIV]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5U-B7OLwWg @ 02:21:00

OMG! Such expense, pomp & circumstance for such a tiny little thing! Can't believe Grace's little boy is consorting with all those Commies!! And Vladimir rasPUTIN, no matter if he is the 2nd most powerful man on the planet, looks as homely as hell (no wonder his wife left him). Where were the Pussy Riot girls?

Plus the fact that Belov died a day or so before the flame came back to Russia was the first sign of bad luck. And that 1st dying out of the flame within the Kremlin grounds is the 2nd sign of a jinx. The spirits of the murdered Romanovs are getting their little revenge on Putin and his commie gang. We shall see what misfortunes will happen in Ekaterinburg and/or the Opening Ceremony.

[SkiFreak]

Putin did it wrong. He should've lit the Sochi 2014 cauldron in Red Square shirtless, on horseback, with torch in one hand and a big Pike in the other.

[world atlas]

Hilarious that after only two runners, the Flame went out and someone ran over with a cigarette lighter to relight it!!

here:

ОЛИМПИЙСКИЙ ОГОНЬ ПОГАС!

[SkiFreak]

The flame went out, but um, don't they have an entourage around the guy with the spare back-up flame in the miner's lantern?

[baron-pierreIV]

The flame went out, but um, don't they have an entourage around the guy with the spare back-up flame in the miner's lantern?

Apparently not in this one. It looks like they are NOT running the escorts and honor guard close to the runners. They thought maybe it was in the Gremlin, so nothing would happen. Ha!! The gods made sure it did! They're going to have to change their 'Hands-off' tactic...esp when Ivanetta Weirskaya takes the torch. I wonder how much they're paying the support teams to run this thing. U probably had to be so desperate for rubles to hitch up with this neck-breaking 65,000mi journey.

[Olympian2004]

4. As some said before, it was lit at Uluru

Sorry, as I have already stated above, the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Flame was lit in Canberra. Here's the proof again: http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2@paradigm4.com.au/msg04410.html

Uluru was only the starting point of the 2000 Olympic torch relay on Australian soil.

[Olympian2004]

And yes, what a wonderful new classic moment in Olympic bloopers history. Am I correct in assuming that those baboons in the Kremlin have never heard of Montreal 1976 before where they thought it's a good idea to re-light the cauldron with a cigarette lighter as well?

Now I'm curious whether they noticed the mistake and used the original flame from the lantern in the later segments of the relay? From what I saw in the video, it seems that they simply exchanged the "impure" cigarette lighter flame from torchbearer to torchbearer.

But true: That happens if you do without the traditional escorts, at least in that first part of the relay around the Kremlin.

[world atlas]

OMG! Such expense, pomp & circumstance for such a tiny little thing!

I agree, it's too formal .. look like a military event not related to sports

unfortunately look like Russia didn't change since the soviet era .. I mean the people mentally .. hope the games itself will be more like sports festival as it should be and not like what we have seen here in the Olympic flame welcome event

if it was Salzburg 2014 it will be much different .. I think it could be more about sports, athletes, olympism, more casual, warm, and charming welcome

for PyeongChang it will host in 2018 anyway

[Victor Mata]

Russia is used to look big and show itself as large, daunting business. It's the largest country in the planet, after all... Their art is all about drama and big booms. I don't see how anything related to them can be minimalistic.

[Ikarus360]

I agree, it's too formal .. look like a military event not related to sports

unfortunately look like Russia didn't change since the soviet era .. I mean the people mentally .. hope the games itself will be more like sports festival as it should be and not like what we have seen here in the Olympic flame welcome event

if it was Salzburg 2014 it will be much different .. I think it could be more about sports, athletes, olympism, more casual, warm, and charming welcome

for PyeongChang it will host in 2018 anyway

What do you expect? Many are even still proud of their former days as the USSR. Russia is bound to have a militaristic feeling here and there (in fact military service is still obligatory there)

And sadly, due to Putin's obsession that everything must work perfectly (yet he couldn't take care of a simple mistake like the torch blooper of today) there will be tons of security at these games (I think someone put an article about it a month ago), since he's also afraid of protesters, specially after the big upset he caused with his anti-gay laws. So i'm afraid this is going to be Beijing all over again. Just that on ice.

Whatever you like it or not, the sad truth is that these games are not a celebration of sport but just a massive project of Putin to presume how his government is good. I dare to think the IOC feared Erdogan would do the same so they gave the games to Tokyo.

[Mr Tickle]

That clip made it on to the BBC news last night.

With regards the security I saw an article where the Russians were comparing Londons security to a concentration camp and their security would be invisible. I always thought Londons talk use of missile launchers was more of a, 'don't even think about it', type approach because we are ready for you. Seems like Russia are taking the opposite approach and not publicising their capability of response should anybody try something.

Only time will tell I guess. I felt very safe in London though, it felt like the safest place on the planet but certainly wasnt in your face.

If someones using a games to promote their own self importance, surely they can only end up with egg on their face.

[Olympian2004]

I can confirm that I didn't feel like in a concentration camp when I was in London during the Paralympics. We had to undergo security checks once when we visited the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (adjacent to the equestrian venue), and the soldiers conducting the checks seemed relaxed and friendly. And yet, as the records show, they did a highly efficient job - and they deserve applause for that.

[Olympian2004]

Back to the topic: The cause for the torch mishap in the Kremlin was a not fully opened gas valve - and OCOG CEO Chernyshenko confirms that the torch will be lit with the original flame from Olympia at the start of every new relay day:

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8734797

[yoshi]

Yes but the important thing is, do we have a cauldron?

[Ikarus360]

By the way, only to be fair, shouldn't we consider Barcelona, Albertville and Torino impure? Since the flame obviously didn't reached the cauldron when they were lit (even more obvious in Torino). Just sayin'.

[Ikarus360]

Oh, by the way, maybe there won't be protests during the olympic torch relay in Russia, but there were already protests in Greece.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/peaceful-protest-precedes-olympic-flame-handover-in-athens-1.1484788

Peaceful protest precedes Olympic flame handover in Athens

ATHENS -- The Olympic flame was handed to organizers of the Sochi Winter Olympics in a ceremony at the site of the first modern summer games on Saturday.

Actress Ino Menegaki, dressed as a high priestess, who lit the flame in Ancient Olympia last Sunday, lit a torch from a cauldron inside Athens' Panathinaiko Stadium. The flame, placed in a lantern, was handed over to Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Kapralos, who, in turn, handed it to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.

After a seven-day run through Greece, the flame will cover 65,000 kilometres (40,000 miles) on Russian soil. The record-setting relay will start on Monday in Moscow, in a ceremony attended by Russia President Vladimir Putin, and will finish in Sochi on Feb. 7, the opening day of the games.

The Sochi Olympics are projected to be the costliest ever. Spending on infrastructure is projected at $50 billion, up from the $12 billion estimate at the time the city won the bid.In a brief speech before the handover of the flame, Kozak referred to the "difficult road" the games organizers and the IOC had travelled from the day the Olympics were awarded to Sochi, in 2007. Kozak said organizers had undertaken "the biggest investment project in the history of the Olympic Games."

"We will fulfil all the engagement we have undertaken to the Olympic movement," Kozak added.

The Winter Games have drawn the wrath of gay rights activists who have pointed out at discrimination against gays in Russia and a recent law banning "homosexual propaganda." The International Olympic Committee has warned participating athletes not to make a public issue out of this during the games.

Inside Panathinaiko Stadium, two activists silently raised a rainbow flag, but there were otherwise no demonstrations during the ceremony.

Early Saturday afternoon, as the flame moved from the Acropolis, where it had stayed overnight, to a cauldron inside the courtyard of the Acropolis Museum, a few dozen gay rights activists gathered on the museum's steps in a peaceful protest. Some held rainbow flags, while others held a banner reading "Homophobia is not in the Olympic Spirit" and "Love is not Propaganda." Another banner mentioned "Putin's victims" allegedly beaten, raped or murdered for being gay.

"The Olympics should have taken a stand against this law in Russia because the Olympic ideals are for supporting human rights and diversity and that's not what's happening in Russia," said protester Zak Kostopoulos.

Police presence was light and there were no incidents.

Associated Press writer Derek Gatopoulos and APTV's Theodora Tongas and Raphael Kominis contributed.

And also, like this wasn't enough.

http://www.elboletin.com/contraportada/85112/antorcha-olimpica-arcoiris-contra-homofobia.html

A" rainbow " Olympic Torch will burn in Madrid against homophobia in Russia

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender make a relay race in the main square to defend the true spirit of the Olympics,

The International Division of the State Federation of Lesbians , Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals ( FELGTB ), with the support of the university association Arcópoli , has organized for this evening a symbolic lit the Olympic flame in Madrid's Plaza Mayor , at 18 am .

" The same day that Russia enters the cauldron to tour until the Olympic Games begin in Sochi on February 7 , lesbians, gays , transsexuals and bisexuals make a relay race with Olympic flame to denounce the Olympics celebration in Russia , where it has been cruelly intensified hatred of LGBT people and punishes the visibility and the struggle for equality, in flagrant breach of the Olympic Charter " guarantees the FELGTB on their website .

The gay community explains that " the cauldron rainbow symbolize the true Olympic spirit coinciding also with the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin , a champion of state homophobia " .

[Olympian2004]

By the way, only to be fair, shouldn't we consider Barcelona, Albertville and Torino impure? Since the flame obviously didn't reached the cauldron when they were lit (even more obvious in Torino). Just sayin'.

Of course we have several examples in Olympic history where the original Olympic flame wasn't actually used for lighting the cauldron. But rarely has it been as obvious as now in the Kremlin that they used an "impure" flame. This case is particularly blatant since that cigarette lighter moment looked so amateurish and they didn't even have the lantern with the original flame at hand.