Heating Up the Winter Games 🔥
A pandemic-shortened symbol of the Games
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The XXIV Olympic Winter Games officially begin with tomorrow’s Opening Ceremony, highlighted by the Olympic Flame lighting the cauldron in Beijing.
The Olympic Flame, first introduced to the modern Games in Amsterdam in 1928, is a symbol of purity and a connection to the ancient Olympics. Lit by the sun on Mount Olympus, site of the ancient Games, the flame travels to the host city via the Olympic Torch Relay. The relay itself dates to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when local officials proposed it as symbolic link to ancient Greek torch relays (and as a display of Nazi propaganda). The relay became part of the Winter Olympics in Oslo in 1952.
Over time, the relay has grown into a huge promotional event in the months leading up to the Games: from a 2-day, 140-mile route with 94 torchbearers in 1952 to a 123-day, 40,000-mile marathon of 14,000 torchbearers in 2014 in Sochi. However, owing to the pandemic, this year’s relay will be the shortest since the first in 1952 - just 3-days of travel to the three competition zones around Beijing.
Though it will be dramatically shortened from past relays the 2022 edition will still have 1,200 torchbearers, including a PLA soldier injured in border clashes with India and an underwater hand-off between two robots, along with the usual former and current athletes.
This year’s shortened relay will end with the dramatic lighting of the Olympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremony. This is usually also a chance for the host country to really dazzle us, as Spain memorably did in 1992:
Look for China to go big tomorrow night to create a buzzy moment around the Olympic Torch Lighting.
If you’d like to know more about the history of the Olympic Flame and Torch Relay, the IOC has excellent educational materials.
What To Watch Today
The second day of competition brings more Curling and Ice Hockey, along with the first Figure Skating events.
(all times EST)
There are still only a handful of events today, so I’m listing them all, but once the Games really kick into gear I will curate Must See events.
What You Missed Last Night
As with live events, I’ll only highlight the best of the overnight events once there is more competition. For now, here’s everything you missed.
In Other Olympic News…
IOC: Athletes allowed to remove masks temporarily while receiving medals
Sports Illustrated: Inside the Power Dynamic That Makes the U.S. a Curling Threat
Stacker: 25 vintage photos of the first Winter Olympic Games
More about this year’s Olympic torch design:
Photo of the Day
