For the first time in Olympic history, a Chinese person will run the second leg of the torch relay in ancient Olympia, Greece, where the flame will be lit.

George Aidonis, the city’s mayor, said, ‘There will be a few changes to the torch relay in Olympia this year, as a Chinese person will run the second leg, carrying the torch from the gate of the ruins to the municipal government hall.’

The Olympic flame for the Beijing Games will be lit in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera at 12 noon on March 24.

The lighting ceremony of the torch ceremony will start with the ‘High Priestess’, played by Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou. She will then pass the torch to the first runner, a Greek athlete, who will carry it to the temple gateway and pass it over to the Chinese runner.

George Aidonis said, ‘This will be the first time a torchbearer from the Games’ host country will take the flame from a Greek athlete and run the second leg. The Chinese runner will be decided by the Chinese embassy in Greece and the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.’

The mayor said everything is in place, despite the fact the city is still trying to recover from a forest fire last year.

The mayor has participated in every lighting ceremony since 1978, and said he expects this year’s to be something special.

‘It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when the Olympic flame is lit. It is a deeply heartwarming experience. And seeing the flame lit for China — a country that has a long history and rich culture, just like Greece — will make the event even more special. The Olympic spirit will spread rapidly around the world.’
Source: China Daily

Fu Ying, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom and double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes will be among the 80 torchbearers carrying the Olympic Flame across London on its way to Beijing on April 6.

Broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald and actress Amara Karan will also run the one-day leg, as part of the worldwide Beijing Olympic Torch Relay.

Fu Ying said that she was glad to be involved in the event, starting at Wembley Stadium, site of the 1948 Olympic Games, and finishing at the O2 Arena at North Greenwich, which is to be one of the venues for the 2012 Games.

Large crowds are expected as the Olympic torch is carried through ten London boroughs.

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, said, ‘Following the outstanding success of the Athens Olympic Torch Relay in London in 2004. It is a great honor for our city to participate in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and once again carry the Olympic spirit of friendship and cooperation between nations across the world.’

It also allows him to get some publicity for the 2012 games which will be held in London.

The Olympic Flame will go to 19 cities on five continents before returning to China and arriving in Beijing for the start of the 2008 Olympic Games on August 8.
Source: China Daily

It will start at the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, seen here, built around 330BC and gloriously reconstructed for the first modern Games in 1896, thanks to a wealthy Athenian benefactor. On 30 March, the 2,300-year-old stadium will witness the passing of the flaming Olympic baton from the Greeks to the Chinese.

The flame will then take a 137,000km journey through every continent except Antarctica over a period of four months.

The torch is scheduled to pass through London on 6 April, San Francisco (9 April), Buenos Aires (11 April) and Canberra (24 April), before reaching Hong Kong on 2 May at the start of a tour of China and Tibet. The highlight — literally — will be an attempt to take the flame to the summit of Mount Everest: a second torch will be left with a group of mountaineers who are planning an ascent in May.

Is Beijing ready for the games?

In contrast to Athens 2004, whose Olympic building program only just met the deadline, the Chinese capital is well ahead of schedule. In fact, some of the 15 new venues were completed more than a year ago, prompting the IOC President Jacques Rogge to urge the organising committee to slow the work down.

The main stadium is not yet quite finished. It will be and the opening ceremony will start at 08:08:08pm on 08-08-08. In Chinese numerology you cannt get much luckier than that.

The airport has a new, third terminal to cope with the Olympic traffic, and Beijing’s metro is being almost trebled in size, with seven new lines and 90 new stations.

For your information the headquarters of the Olympic movement is in a city that has never staged the Games, and is never likely to.

Baron de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in Paris in 1894, but it moved to Lausanne after the First World War because of Switzerland’s neutrality. Which will almost certainly never see an Olympic Games. It matters not.

Beijing will do all the shining and glory the Olympics will ever need. Read the long, exhaustive and superbly researched story by clicking on Source.
Source: The Independent

Beijing organizers are designing a high-tech Olympic torch which, like the American Post Office, will get there, brightly lit. To misquote only slightly:

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall keep the torch from staying alight on its appointed rounds.

It is being designed to be able to withstand gale-force wind, torrential rain and even the oxygen-thin air atop Mount Everest.

A torch design lab under the China Aerospace Science and Industry has been set up. Technician Xue Li said, ‘The flame … should be bright and very pleasant to the eyes.’ (The torch in the illustration is NOT the torch that will be used but it does give the feeling for the Olympic Games and its flame.)

The Olympic flame was introduced to the modern Olympics in 1928. Ahead of each games, the torch is lit at Olympia in Greece — site of the ancient Olympic Games — and transported to the host city by a relay of runners, with the last using it to ignite a cauldron at the host stadium during the opening ceremony.

It has gone out at least twice during the Olympics, including at the 1976 Montreal Games when it was drowned in a rainstorm and was restarted with an official’s cigarette lighter. Organizers later lit it again with a backup flame from Olympia.

Beijing organizers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history — a 136,800-kilometer, 130-day route that will cross five continents.

China has sought to smooth over scuttled plans to include Taiwan in the torch relay for next year’s Beijing Olympics. It said residents of the island were welcome to join in cultural and other exchanges surrounding the games.

Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office and seen here, said, ‘We still strongly welcome Taiwan compatriots to actively participate in Olympic Games-related activities such as sports culture exchanges, Olympic training and competition activities, Olympics-related volunteer activities and so on.’

Taiwan, which has never been included in an Olympic torch relay, had objected to its placement on the route ahead of Hong Kong, saying that it would make it appear to be part of Chinese territory.

Taipei also accused Beijing of introducing last-minute conditions on the display of Taiwanese flags and national symbols along the route.

Beijing has expressed its regrets at this development but has insisted that all Taiwanese citizens will be very welcome.
Source: International Herald Tribune