(ATR) With a crowd of 5,000 watching from the banks of the stadium in Olympia, the flame was lit in the traditional ceremony.
Held under sunny skies, it took just two seconds to light the flame from a parabolic mirror, making unnecessaryback-up flames kindled during a rehearsal the day before.
IOC President Jacques Rogge and London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe were among the speakers for the hour-long event.
"This is the second time the people of the U.K. have gathered here to celebrate igniting of the flame. In 1948, shortly after the Second World War, my predecessor stood where I am today and made the first tentative steps in turning the world from war to sport," said Coe.
"We find ourselves in challenging times again and turn to sport once more to connect the world in a global celebration of achievement and inspiration," he said.
Coe was joined in Olympia by vice chair Keith Mills, COO Paul Deighton, IOC member Craig Reedie and sports minister Hugh Robertson and British Olympic Association chair Colin Moynihan.
Reedie tells Around the Rings that the flame lighting is one of three occasions when the IOC is closely entwined with the Olympic host city. The first is when the IOC elects the city, he says. The third is the night of opening ceremony.
Unlike the 1948 London flame lighting ceremony (only the second in the annals of the Games) the 2012 flame will go to Athens next week for a handover ceremony prior to heading to the U.K. In 1948, Greece was gripped with civil war and Athens was not suitable to handle the protocol of the flame transfer so the flame departed for England from the Pelloponese.
The first runner in the Greek relay this year is open water swim champion Spyros Gianniotis. The second runner will be Alex Loukos, 19, born in the U.K., his father from the Greek island of Lesvos. Brazilian Olympic Committee and Rio 2016 President Carlos Arthur Nuzman will be the fourth tourchbearer.
For the next week, 490 runners will carry the Olympic flame through Greece, including stops on the islands of Crete and Rhodes. The handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium from the 1896 Games is set for the evening of May 17.
Besides torchbearer Nuzman and Britain’s Reedie, IOC members attending the flame lighting included Dennis Oswald, chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for London 2012 and commission members Alex Gilady and Gunilla Lindberg. Federations were represented by Hasan Moustapha of handall and Jose Perureina of canoe. The deposed king of Greece, Constantine, now an honorary IOC member, was in the front row.
Azerbaijan sports minister Azad Rahimov was in the audience, closely involved in the bid from Baku for 2020. He was the only senior figure associated with the five bid cities to be spotted, although former Turkish Olympic Committee chief Togay Bayatli sat a few seats away from Rahimov.
Homepage photo by Around the Rings.
Written and reported in Olympia by Ed Hula.
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