The Olympic torch relay begins today in Greece... but believe it or not it was all Adolf Hitler's flaming idea


Today, the Olympic torch will be lit in a ceremony in Ancient Olympia. After a short relay around Greece, it will be flown to Britain a week tomorrow to be carried around the country by a succession of torchbearers. Finally, it will be used to light the cauldron at London’s Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony on July 27. Here, GUY WALTERS reveals the fascinating story of the flame. . .

Flame races were run in ancient Athens to honour deities including Prometheus who, legend has it, stole fire from the gods and brought wisdom and knowledge to humankind.

Several months before each Games, the flame is ignited at the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, where the Ancient Olympic Games were held. A fire was kept burning there to honour Zeus, the supreme ruler in the Greek pantheon.

Actresses dressed as priestesses use the sun and a parabolic mirror to light the flame. Carried on foot to Athens in an urn, it is delivered to host-city officials at the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens.

Scroll down to watch a rehearsal for the historic ceremony



Authentic: High Priestess Ino Menegaki holds the Olympic flame at the Ancient Stadium during the Rehearsal for the Lighting Ceremony of the Olympic Flame

Getting ready: First torchbearer Spyros Gianniotis, swimming world champion, carries the torch as the rehearsals continued in Greece



OLYMPIC FLAME REHEARSAL GOES OFF WITHOUT A HITCH

The final rehearsal for the lighting of the flame that will burn at the London Olympics went off without a hitch under sunny skies in the birthplace of the Ancient Games. Standing in front of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, an actress dressed as a high priestess used a concave mirror to focus the sun's rays and light a torch.

That flame will serve as a backup in the unlikely event that clouds block the sun at Thursday's official lighting ceremony.

This has happened only once in recent memory for the Summer Olympics - in 2000, ahead of the late-season Sydney Games - but clouds have disrupted three of the previous four Winter Games ceremonies.

After an 1,800-mile journey through Greece using 490 torchbearers, the flame will be handed to London organizers on May 17 in Athens' Panathenian Stadium, where the first modern games were staged in 1896. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an eternal flame. It is lit a few months before every Games and extinguished during the closing ceremony.

The idea of a torch relay was devised by the Germans for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hitler admired the culture of Classical Greece, and the relay was seen as an imaginative way to link Berlin with the original Games. The man behind the idea was Carl Diem, one of the organisers in 1936.

The first torch was made of steel from Krupps metal-works, where Hitler was stockpiling munitions ahead of the Second World War.

There was widespread discussion about the best way to light the Berlin flame. Using a match was considered too mundane. Greek archaeologist Alexander Philadelphus suggested it should be lit by the sun’s rays focused on to kindling by a parabolic glass. To thank him, Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels personally awarded him the German Olympic Order. The certificate was signed by Hitler.

Fire reappeared at the modern Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928, when a flame was built into an Olympic stadium tower. It was seen as a symbolic link between the old and new Games.

3,331 runners participated in the first torch relay (from Olympia to Berlin) — more than one runner for each of the 3,187 kilometres of the route. There were riots as the torch passed through Vienna when the relay was welcomed by ecstatic Austrian Nazis.

Before the 1956 Melbourne Games, a student ran into Sydney carrying a fake torch as a protest against the Nazi origins of the relay. His stunt conned thousands of people, including the local police — who escorted him on his way to hand the torch to the mayor of Sydney . . . who eventually realised he had been hoodwinked.

At the last London Olympics, in 1948, the torch relay was designated a ‘relay of peace’. The first bearer, Corporal Dimitrelis, symbolically removed his Army uniform before running.

It is transported between countries by plane. For the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the flame was even taken underwater at the Great Barrier Reef. A special flare was created, combining oxygen-generating chemicals and powdered magnesium that burned at 2,000°C and created enough pressure to stop water entering the torch and extinguishing the flame. Showpiece: Nazi leader Adolf Hitler basks in the reflected glory of Tilly Fleischer, right, who secured the first gold medal for Germany in the Olympic Games in the javelin event with 45.18metres. Left to Right: Miss Kwaniewska (Poland) (BRONZE), Miss Kreuger (Germany) (SILVER), Herr Hitler and Miss Fleischer (GOLD) Ceremonial: The flame will travel around Greek mainland and islands before being handed to the UK later this month

Lift off: A priestess releases a dove during the Ancient Olympia rehearsal ceremony, while right, other performers perfect their routine

Planning ahead: After travelling around Greece, the torch will be passed to the UK on May 18 for a 70-day relay around Britain

Tradition: The High Priestess is surrounded by other performers during the lighting rehearsal for the Olympic torch During the Montreal Olympics, the flame was extinguished by accident during a rainstorm. An official quickly relit it with a cigarette lighter — to the embarrassment of the organisers, who ordered it had to be rekindled properly from a back-up of the original flame.

The identity of the final torch-bearer, who lights the flame in the cauldron in the stadium, is always a closely guarded secret. In London in 1948, it was the little-known Cambridge University runner John Mark, chosen because he was — according to the official Olympic report — ‘tall and handsome like a young Greek god’. Afterwards, he became a Hampshire GP.

Others who have lit the cauldron include boxer Muhammad Ali (Atlanta, 1996), athlete Yoshinori Sakai (Tokyo, 1964), who was born on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and sprinter Cathy Freeman (Sydney, 2000) — the only person to have lit the cauldron and won a gold medal at the same Games.

Five-times Olympic rowing champion Sir Steve Redgrave or the first man to run a four-minute mile, Sir Roger Bannister are among the favourites to light this year’s.

There have been many designs for the torches, all of which have contained a variety of fuels to keep the flame alight, including magnesium, gunpowder, resin and even olive oil.

The 2012 torch (pictured below) is designed by Londoners Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. It’s made of an inner and outer aluminium alloy skin and perforated by 8,000 circles representing the 8,000 torch-bearers. The circles also reduce the weight and help dissipate the heat.

Tecosim, the Basildon-based product engineers; Bullfinch, the Birmingham-based liquid petroleum gas specialists; and Premier Sheet Metal, the Coventry manufacturers, have all helped produce it. It is being tested in BMW’s climatic-testing facility in Munich.

The mother flame, in a back-up lantern, can be used to relight a new torch in emergencies. Back-up torches will never be more than 30 seconds away.

The triangular-shaped torch was inspired by a series of ‘threes’ found in the history of the Olympic Games and the vision for the Olympic Movement. There are three Olympic values (respect, excellence and friendship; three words that make up the Olympic motto (faster, higher, stronger); and the UK been host three times (1908, 1948 and 2012).

A different torch is expected to be used to light the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium, incorporating a smoke apparatus so it can be easily followed by the spectators in the stadium and on television worldwide.

Torches from previous Olympics can be bought on the internet. A torch from the 1980 Moscow Olympics is listed for sale at a starting bid of £1,250. One from the 1968 Mexico City games is at £962, and another from the 1948 London Games is available for £8,500.

Great-grandmother Diana Gould, 100, will be the oldest torch-bearer in the UK relay. She runs exercise classes in her north London retirement flats and is an inspiration to her neighbours. Her motto is: ‘Don’t think old. Just get on with it.’

Finishing touches: Male performers complete part of a routine in the ancient Greek site, where the official ceremony will take place on Thursday

Once the Greek leg of the torch ceremony is completed, the Olympic flame will be flown to the UK on May 17

Ancient history: British-born torchbearer Spyros Gianniotis goes through the motions ahead of his role as first torchbearer, while right, the High Priestess gets to grips with the Olympic flame

Heat rises from the Olympic flame as the High Priestess kneels to continue the rehearsals in Ancient Olympia