Excitement builds as an important pre-Games tradition–the Olympic Torch Relay–commences this week.
Olympic fans have been anxiously awaiting the return of the postponed Tokyo Olympic Summer Games. And a big part of the festivities will begin later this week. A press release from the Olympics headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, announced that the Olympic Torch Relay would officially commence Thursday, March 25th, starting in Fukushima Prefecture, where the Flame will thereafter embark on a tour of Japan.
The Flame, a symbol of hope, will involve about 10,000 bearers over 121 days and will traverse all 47 Japanese prefectures before arriving in Tokyo in time for the Opening Ceremony of Tokyo 2020, on July 23rd.
As 2021 will mark the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay will showcase the recovery of the areas worst affected by the disaster. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will also symbolize the light at the end of the current dark tunnel, a beacon of hope for the world in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Before the Games’ 2020 postponement, 3,000 public spectators and a chorus of local children were scheduled to perform. But with the virus still a concern, the ceremony’s events were scaled-back drastically.
People will be allowed to view torchbearers as they run on public roads along the route, but they will be urged to social distance themselves, wear masks, and clap but not cheer.
With caution, then, a long tradition will continue. Historically, the Relay’s function is twofold–to herald the Olympic Games and to transmit a message of peace and friendship to the people along its route. It commemorates the relaying of the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece to the Olympic Games site. In modern times, the relay was first performed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and it has taken place before every Game since.
The lighting of the Olympic flame is a practice that’s also connected to the ancient Games. It started at the ancient Olympia site in Greece, where a flame was ignited at the Temple of Hera in Olympia by the sun as rays reflected off a cursed mirror. It kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games.
Pierre De Coubertin, father of the modern Olympics Games: May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations for the good of humanity, always more enthusiastic, more courageous, and purer.
Here are interesting historical facts about the Olympic Torch Relay:
- Fritz Schligen, a middle-distance runner, was the first person to light the Olympic Flame at Berlin in 1936.
- Ron Clarke, a then-unknown 19-year-old athlete, was the torchbearer for the 1956 Olympics. He carried the torch into the stadium at Melbourne, Australia. Clarke went on to become the world’s finest distance runner in the 1960s.
- Yoshinori Sakai was the Japanese torchbearer who lit the flame in Tokyo in 1964. Sakai was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped.
- Muhammad Ali lit the flame at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. He jogged the final leg of the relay to light the cauldron at the start of the Games.
- Cathy Freeman, an Australian Aborigine, lit the cauldron at the start of the Sydney 2000 Games and went on to win the 400m race. She is the only person to light the Olympic Flame and win a Gold Medal at the same Games.
- Mike Eruzione, with assistance from the Gold Medal 1980 Olympic ice hockey team, lit the cauldron at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
The Olympic torch rally continues to be a symbol of peace, friendship, tolerance, and hope. View this video to learn more about the history of the Olympic torch.
