ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) The Olympic flame began its journey to Salt Lake City yesterday, carrying hopes that the Winter Games can bring solace to a nation in mourning and at war.
- Paul Wong
- War in the Middle East could not deter the tradition of the Olympic torch yesterday.<br><br>AP PHOTO
The flame was displayed in a traditional ceremony among the ruins of the ancient birthplace of the Olympics.
But clouds and rain prevented the ritual lighting of the flame using the sun”s rays on a concave mirror. A flame ignited in the mirror during an earlier practice session was used instead. The flame had been kept burning in lamps.
It was the third consecutive time dating to the 1998 Nagano Games that the torch was not lighted during the official ceremony because of bad weather in Ancient Olympia, about 135 miles southwest of Athens.
“The forebears of Olympians, of civilization, of humanity looked beyond themselves to find the source of greatness and of light. May we look to the eternal source to guide our world today,” said Mitt Romney, head of Salt Lake City organizing committee.
Greek actress Thalia Prokopiou, in her role as high priestess during the ceremony, used the flame to light the Salt Lake City torch at a grove of cypress trees dedicated to Pierre de Coubertin, the French baron who revived the Olympics more than a century ago.
The first leg of the torch relay was run by Lefteris Fafalis, a Greek cross-country skier.
The torch is scheduled to arrive in Athens today and burn in the all-marble Panathenian stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896.
The torch then heads by plane to Atlanta on Dec. 3. The 65-day relay across the United States ends at the opening ceremony in Salt Lake City on Feb. 8. The route passes through all the U.S. states except Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii.
Police will also accompany the flame in a sign of the heightened worries following Sept. 11, Romney said.
“The torch is an important symbol which we wish to protect,” said Romney, who was accompanied by Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and U.S. Olympic Committee president Sandy Baldwin.
Ancient Olympia Mayor Giorgos Aidonis hoped the torch relay will “warm the hearts of people.”
The president of the Greek Olympic Committee, Lambis Nikolaou, said the flame”s long journey could convey a spirit of unity “at a time when humanity is shaken by tragic events.”
He also announced that 17 foreign ministers, including those of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, had signed a declaration in support of an Olympic Truce during the Salt Lake City Games.
The effort spearheaded by Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou seeks to revive the ancient tradition of suspending conflicts during the Olympics.
“Because of the tragic events of Sept. 11, we see this as the first time that the world has come together to heal, that fate has fallen upon Salt Lake City to be the place and we will be ready,” Leavitt said.
Romney said New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. will be main stops for the torch “in tribute to fallen citizens of the world, many redefining heroism for me and my countrymen.”