In 1928 , the first modern Olympian flaming waslitat the Summer Games in Amsterdam . The ritual , barrack by the flaming kept burning during the ancient Olympic Games in Greece , was a smasher , and it ’s been a pillar at eachopening ceremonyever since .
Today ’s rendering of the traditiontracesits root back to the 1936 SummerOlympicsin Berlin , when the first Olympic Torch Relay was introduced — a problematic kickoff , as those Games were overseen byHitlerand largelyfunctionedas a way to spewNazipropaganda to a global audience .
The flame is always get down in Olympia , Greece , as a nod to the Olympics ’ parentage , and then a series of torchbearers will turn over off the flame ( which does incidentally getextinguishedsometimes ) until it reach the location of the current Games . The last torchbearer then lights the Olympic cauldron at the opening night ceremonial occasion .
The cauldron lighting , like the opening ceremonial occasion themselves , have gotten progressively more extravagant and impressive over the class . And in the supercut below , you may watch them back to back . The video also includes footage of all the opening ceremonies prior to the first cauldron firing , but you wo n’t see a flame until you get to 1928 . The 1936 ceremony is omitted totally , and other timeline gaps were cause bycancellations .
The final torchbearer responsible for setting the cauldron aflame is often a former or current Olympian from the host commonwealth . Muhammad Ali , for illustration , didthe honor in Atlanta in 1996 . And while the cauldron lighting is always a highly anticipated part of the proceedings , it does n’t always go according to plan . At the 1988 Seoul Olympics , doves released earlier had settle on the rim of the cauldron , and not all of them scat when their perch caught fire .
you may watch that and other much less ruinous caldron lighting below .
