Fire is an integral part of the Attributes of the Olympic Games, along with the flag and the motto using deep reverence in the audience. So, in honor of this symbol in 1980, they wrote a song, and after the competitions in Sochi, who passed in 2014, the Fountain "Bowl of Olympic Fire" remained in the local Olympic Park. The flame is made to light at the opening ceremony passing in the city of the Olympiad - it burns continuously until the last day of the contest. When the Olympic flame appeared and what this symbol means is in the material 24cm.
What symbolizes the Olympic Fire
The tradition of burning fire on the opening of a sports festival goes during the time of ancient Greece. People believed that the flame personified the fire, which presented to people of Prometheus, reminded the heroic act of Titan, who brought the light on the ground and punished for this by the gloomy Zeus. The Fire of the Olympics symbolizes the world and friendship, striving for victory and cleansing.After a centuries-old break, in 1896, the first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens. However, on that Olympics, the fire has not yet been focused. It happened many years later. The idea of the return of tradition, ascending to the ancient Greek rituals, in 1912, he put forward the French Baron Pierre de Coubert Indeed - the founder of Olympism, the creator of the famous flag with five rings. However, for the first time, the Olympic flame was lit only in 1928 in Amsterdam - at the stadium in the capital of the Netherlands on this occasion, the first bowl for a symbolic flame was built.
Where and how the torch of the Olympic Fire of Modern Games
When the games were specifically born, scientists are not yet ready to give an accurate answer. But the founder of the Olympic Games of Historians consider Pelops, which married the kingman's daughter.
According to the legend, the ruler of the city of Ines was predicted that he would die when the beauty of Hippodami would marry. To avoid this fate, Enomai put impracticable conditions to the hands of the hand and the heart of the heir. The grooms competed with Enonoma in the race on the chariots, but no one could defeat the lord, except Pelops, who bribed the royal groom. After the victory in the racing and death of the father of Hippodami, the groom became the ruler of the letters and arranged grand festivals in honor of this event.
By tradition, the Torch of the Olympic Fire World Games is lit a few months before the start of the competition in the temple of Zeus in Olympia from sunlight using a parabolic mirror. In honor of this event, a solemn ceremony is arranged, in front of which there are several rehearsals.
In the ritual, actresses depicting the priestess are involved. These are eleven girls in traditional Greek costumes. "Verkhovna Zhrice" gets honorable right to read the prayer and burn fire. For the ceremony of the litigation, the relay of the Olympic Fire, on which athletes transmit the flame to the capital of the Olympic Games.
Throughout the modern history of the Olympic Games, the ritual and the location of the insight changed more. So, for the first games in 1896, no ceremony was satisfied with Greece with the relay. At competitions in the Netherlands, the flame just lit in the bowl. In 1952, the litigation occurred in the House-Museum of the Pioneer of the Norwegian Ski Sports Sandra Norheyim. And in 1992, played in Barcelona, who were remembered by the most spectacular ceremony. Spanish archel champion, Paralympic Antonio Rebolo set fire the arrow, which then launched into the bowl at the stadium.
Double bottom Olympic relay
As already mentioned, the first Olympic fire lit without any relay. For the first time, the traditional transfer of flames for the first time to the venue occurred only after eight years - then the competitions took place in Berlin. The initiator was the German sports functionar Karl Dim. The official version states that the scientist inspired the picture on an ancient Greek vase on this idea, where the ritual of lampadromy is depicted - compets in running torch.
In this version of the birth story, the relay is forgotten to mention the name of the archaeologist and the sports figure of Alfred Schiff, which was held in the German Reich Committee in the Olympic Games. The scientist explored reliefs and drawings on vases with image of the Torch. It was the archaeologist that suggested that in ancient times there was a ritual with a relay of the transfer of fire, and spoke about the guesses of Karl Dima. This theory is confirmed by records in the diaries of the German movie theorist. The scientist advised a colleague on antique sports.
It is also found that the idea of organizing the relay of Dima was suggested not only by Alfred Schiff. The urgent recommendation was received from the Imperial Ministry of National Education and Propaganda, which was responsible for carrying out torch processions in Germany.
For the 1936 Olympics, the solemn beacon was held in Olympia, in the temple of Zeus, with the help of a mirror, which was manufactured by the German company Zeiss Optics. The flame was overcome from Athens to Berlin through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia.
So that the fire does not go out
The Olympic Fire must reach the bowl at the stadium in the capital of the Games of Neksigas. So that the flames did not go out, engineers carefully think over the design of torches. For example, German company Friedrich Krupp introduced backup philitors. Also, German chemists created an element for burning magnesium, helping to support the flame even in the wind.Similar technology was used on games in London in 1948, for which two torches were invented. At one, the pills with flammable were placed in one, and magnesium was set on fire, so the flame remained noticeable in daylight. The second option was used at the last stage of the relay, when the British athlete John Mark was found in the stadium in Wembley.
However, even verified designs and innovative combustible elements are sometimes not able to prevent irreparable. One of such cases occurred in Montreal. On the Olympic Games in Canada in 1976, the fire was delivered by an innovative way - through space. Through the satellite, the flame was transferred from Athens to Ottawa, where the torch was then set on fire. It was the first transfer of fire from one continent to another. But on July 22, because of the storm wind, the bowl at the stadium in Montreal went out - I had to use the reserve source of flame brought from Greece.
The incident with the extinguished flame happened in the Winter Olympics in Sochi. It happened on Red Square in Moscow, when the Torch was carried by Shavarsh Vladimirovich Karapetyan, the Soviet seven-time champion in the discipline "Scuba diving", eleventhitious record holder of the world. The employee of the FSO came to the aid, who returned the flame with the help of a lighter.
Olympic fire went out and in March 2021, when the relay was started in Japan. This happened at the race stage in Fukushima. With the help of the backup lamp, the flame was lit again, and the Torchor continued to run.
Path of Olympic Fire
From the moment the games have acquired a global scale, the Olympic Fire path changed many times. Every year, competition organizers come up with the most original route. The flame was transferred between the continents through space and even under water. In 2000, the Australian biologist Wendy Craig Duncan held with the Olympic flame on the seabed through a big barrier reef. Scientists have come up with a torch with a sparkling composition, which is not Gas under water and emitted light.
The case at the Olympics in Sydney is not the only one when the fire has contacted water. In winter games in Sochi, the flame was lowered to the bottom of Lake Baikal in Listvyanka. Transmission under water performed diversa-Torch. The burning was maintained at the expense of a device that transmits signals to the sea.
Attacks on the Torch Olympiad
They happened in the history of the Olympics and attacks on symbolic fire. So, during the relay in Brazil in 2016, the flame tried to put out an unknown man. The attacker released a foam foam from the fire extinguisher in the Torchoronian, but the court of law enforcement was stopped in time, and the fire did not go out. After that, another attack was committed on an athlete - a man broke through the fence and attacked the runner, trying to pull out the torch. This intruder police also managed to neutralize.The curious case occurred at the Olympic relay in Japan in 2021. A local resident in protest against the holding of a competition in the midst of a coronavirus infection pandemic ran to the Torch of the Water Pistol and tried to put out the flame. This happened in the prefecture in the northeast of Tokyo. Woman detained stewards.
Who lied the Olympic fire
On the first relay of the Olympic Fire Bowl at the stadium he lit a German runner Fritz Shilgen. The athlete received this honorable right for the elegant style of running. The tradition of burning flames glorified athletes has been preserved until now.
Among the most famous personalities that the Olympic fire was lit, Boxer Mohammed Ali. It happened at the opening ceremony of Atlanta (USA) in 1996. The athlete brought the torch to the self-turning cable, according to which the flame snake rose to the bowl, which looked spectacularly.
At the opening ceremony of the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow in the 1980s, the Soviet basketball player, the Olympic champion of 1972 Sergey Belov became the latter, the relay. The athlete lit a bowl at the stadium in Luzhniki.
Sometimes participants of the relay have become not professional athletes, but ordinary people and even children. The Montreal Olympiad in 1976 was remembered not only to the flame. With the bowl in the stadium, another entertaining case is connected. Then the Olympic Fire lit up two teenagers - Stephen Prefrontein and Sandra Henderson, which symbolized the unity of Canada. The guy represented the French-speaking part of the country, and the girl is English-speaking.