Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay

[Rob2012]

What on earth is going on ?!

[Victor Mata]

They're lighting the fire within in a completely wrong way.

[baron-pierreIV]

Wait until the torch passes by the Chechnya areas....then we will see human torches again...a la Vietnam.

[Rob2012]

According to this article the Moscow Times has recorded 44 occasions on which the torch has died so far.

[StefanMUC]

Oh well, I've voiced my view on this whole thing some days ago :-)

[baron-pierreIV]

According to this article the Moscow Times has recorded 44 occasions on which the torch has died so far.

Not including the longest time it wasn't lit for the 'Space Walk'?? I wonder how long, just for the record, it was cut off for the little space shindig.

[Ikarus360]

It's notorious how disastrous this torch design has been so far. I hope it serves as a lesson for future Olympics about being more careful when designing the torches. Not mentioning this whole torch relay has been so much over the top I'm not even bothering watching it anymore.

[JMarkSnow2012]

Not including the longest time it wasn't lit for the 'Space Walk'?? I wonder how long, just for the record, it was cut off for the little space shindig.

I thought the point was that the space-walk was a sort of baptism ceremony for a torch which won't be lit until right at the end, to be used for igniting the Cauldron.

[baron-pierreIV]

I thought the point was that the space-walk was a sort of baptism ceremony for a torch which won't be lit until right at the end, to be used for igniting the Cauldron.

Is that what it was? So the commentators could have another little tidbit to tell? So, a non-fire from the heavens??

[gotosy]

Olympic Games - Russian torchbearer dies after carrying flame in Sochi relay A torchbearer died of a heart attack after carrying the Olympic flame as part of Russia's torch relay leading up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Games in February, an official said on Monday.

Vadim Gorbenko, 73, a sports school director and Greco-Roman wrestling coach, felt ill after walking 150 metres (500 feet) with the torch in his home city of Kurgan in western Siberia, said Roman Osin, spokesman for the Sochi 2014 torch relay.

"He returned to the gathering place and was photographed, then he said he was not feeling well and was taken to hospital, but the doctors were unable to save him," Osin, who travels with the relay, said by telephone.

"We express our deepest condolences to his loved ones."

Osin said Gorbenko, who had trained top Russian wrestlers and won state honours, had suffered two heart attacks in the past. He was conscious when he was taken to hospital and had spoken to his son at his bedside before his death.

Russia's four-month, 65,000-km (40,000 mile) torch relay has been clouded by mishaps.

The flame has gone out dozens of times since President Vladimir Putin handed it off in Red Square on Oct. 6, and last month a torchbearer's jacket caught fire as he carried the flame though another Siberian city.

Cosmonauts took an unlit torch on a spacewalk last month. The Olympic flame has been to the north pole and Lake Baikal on a journey that will end at the opening ceremony in Sochi on Feb. 7.

Putin appears eager to improve Russia's image and build his own legacy by hosting the country's first post-Soviet Olympics, but he has faced criticism over legislation seen in the West as anti-gay and some world leaders are staying away from the Games.

The 14,000 torchbearers in the Sochi 2014 relay are not asked to sign releases but are warned that it involves some physical exertion and their health is their own responsibility, Osin said.

Reuters

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/olympic-games-russian-torchbearer-dies-carrying-flame-sochi-075426395--spt.html

[Rob2012]

That's very sad

[baron-pierreIV]

With all the records they are trying to make with this over-the-top relay...well, they just added another one.

Am not surprised that something like this happened. Sad but true.

[Ikarus360]

^^ Indeed. Just as the disastrous Beijing 2008 torch relay caused the international legs to be dropped for good, I think this over the top relay which had so many incidents (torch misshaps, and now this death) is going to probably cause future relays to be more moderate and less exagerated. Something which I favor, to be honest (I liked London relay cuz it wanst over the top and was more human. I really wish the next relays would be like this one)

[Rob2012]

Oh come on, he fell ill after walking 150 metres, he wasn't swimming across a frozen lake or anything like that. This could've happened at any relay; London, Vancouver, Atlanta, anywhere.

There's a lot of things to knock Sochi and Russia about, but this death ain't one of them.

[nobase2010]

Sochi's Olympic torch goes up in flame. I'm glad it didn't explode, scary. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=24e_1388299389&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[runningrings]

Maybe it is just the negative attention of the media already fixated on the high drama of Sochi 2014 - but that aside this does seem like one of the shoddiest torch designs of recent times? It seems to have gone out, or self-engulfed on so many occasions. I don't recall this happening (at all) during the London relay.

[illustrado]

Maybe it is just the negative attention of the media already fixated on the high drama of Sochi 2014 - but that aside this does seem like one of the shoddiest torch designs of recent times? It seems to have gone out, or self-engulfed on so many occasions. I don't recall this happening (at all) during the London relay.

the only thing that happened to the flame in London is the weeping angels trying to consume it's energy

[Rob2012]

London's did go out a few times, most notably when they took it white water rafting (duuhhh!), but not as many times as this Sochi torch has, and London's never set anyone on fire!

Love the new avatar runningrings!

[Olympian2004]

I don't even understand how the whole thing can catch fire - is it because some liquid gas dropped down the torch? It's because the gas nozzles actually sit only on the top of the torch, so I don't know how those flames respectively the gas could shoot out of other parts of the torch.

Scary indeed - or at least very unfortunate, after all the bad headlines Sochi's relay has received so far.

[baron-pierreIV]

Jeez!! How will the Big One perform???

[Olympian2004]

I just watched the review of the year's events made by German Olympic broadcaster ZDF - there they showed pictures of the torch relay, including some footage of the "flame-outs". The commentator said about that footage: "What Putin says, will be done. Regarding this, it's almost comforting that at least the Olympic Flame doesn't take orders by the Russian government. It shows silent protest, because the Olympic Spirit doesn't quite fit to a country in which homosexuals are discriminated and dissidents become a target of the government."

[Rob2012]

Wow, I'm not sure I could imagine anyone at the BBC saying something like that.

Its stance tends to be that BBC Sport (based in Manchester) will cover the sport side of things whilst BBC News (based in London) will report on any news stories. In Beijing they did manage to get reporters into zones the Chinese didn't want the world to see, so they were digging, but they wouldn't take a particular stance on any issues.

Unless this was just a commentator ZDF drafted in who doesn't work for the organisation, it sounds very unusual to hear commentary like that.

[Ikarus360]

I just watched the review of the year's events made by German Olympic broadcaster ZDF - there they showed pictures of the torch relay, including some footage of the "flame-outs". The commentator said about that footage: "What Putin says, will be done. Regarding this, it's almost comforting that at least the Olympic Flame doesn't take orders by the Russian government. It shows silent protest, because the Olympic Spirit doesn't quite fit to a country in which homosexuals are discriminated and dissidents become a target of the government."

Why the torch didn't went out frequently in Beijing, then? They're as bad or worse than Russia.

This was just the result of a badly designed torch, and i'm sure this incident will make future hosts to be more careful with how they design their torches.

[Olympian2004]

Of course. And the commentator tried to be clever and ironic - so you have to take it as a tongue-in-cheek comment. But somehow he has a point: Just like Beijing, these Games are somewhat flawed already in advance - and the problems in the torch relay are an actually unrelated, but nevertheless fitting symbol for that.

[StefanMUC]

Wow, I'm not sure I could imagine anyone at the BBC saying something like that. Its stance tends to be that BBC Sport (based in Manchester) will cover the sport side of things whilst BBC News (based in London) will report on any news stories. In Beijing they did manage to get reporters into zones the Chinese didn't want the world to see, so they were digging, but they wouldn't take a particular stance on any issues. Unless this was just a commentator ZDF drafted in who doesn't work for the organisation, it sounds very unusual to hear commentary like that.

I didn't watch, but I guess Olympian2004 referred to "Album 2013", a traditional year-end review on ZDF, not only on sports. The commentator there was their deputy news editor-in-chief. So it is kind of an official comment from ZDF, but German media in general are very critical of Putin nowadays, so that's no surprise.