Winter Olympic Games 2018 Torch Relay

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Ancient Olympia in Greece will host the Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony, on Tuesday October 24, 11:30 (GMT+3) ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games which will be held in PyeongChang.

 

 

Watch Live Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony PyeongChang 2018

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The South Korean international football player Park Ji-Sung will be the second torch bearer in ancient Olympia for PyeongChang2018.

 

Edited October 19, 2017 by Janakis

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The PyeongChang 2018 Torch Relay

 

 

 

 

 

Official Torch Relay site https://www.pyeongchang2018.com/ko/torch-relay

 

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Olympia awaits flame lighting ceremony for PyeongChang 2018

 

On 24 October, the lighting ceremony for the Olympic flame will signal the start of the countdown towards the next edition of the Games, PyeongChang 2018. Be part of this historic moment and follow the ceremony live on Tuesday at 11.00 CET.

 

The ceremony will take place in Olympia, home of the ancient Games in Greece. As is the tradition, a torch at the ancient temple of Hera will be lit by the rays of the sun using a parabolic mirror, to set off a domestic relay. The lighting ceremony will start at 12 noon local time, with actress Katerina Lehou as High Priestess and Artemis Ignatiou as the choreographer.

 

Twenty-four-year-old cross-country skier Apostolos Angelis from Greece, who has already secured his participation in PyeongChang 2018, will be the first torchbearer. “It is a great honour for me to be chosen as the first torchbearer for the Olympic Winter Games of 2018. It is truly a unique moment that I am looking forward to. I feel very proud and with a unique sense of happiness,” says Angelis. 

 

The famous football player Park Ji-Sung (Republic of Korea) will be the second torch bearer. He will take the Olympic Flame from the torch of Apostolos Angelis outside the Pierre de Coubertin Grove. Park Ji-Sung has been in the past a star player for, among others, Manchester United and of PSV Eindhoven.

 

Over the following week, the flame will take a tour of Greece. The symbol of Olympism will cover 2,129km on Greek territory and will arrive at the Acropolis on 30 October. Some 505 torchbearers will participate and 36 welcome ceremonies will be held in 20 municipalities over the eight days. The ceremony to handover the flame to the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee will be held at the Panathenaic Stadium on 31 October at 11 a.m. Athens time.

 

Then the flame will make its way 8,500km east, to the Korean city of Incheon, arriving on 1 November to coincide with 100 days to go until the start of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

 

Thereafter the Olympic Torch Relay will see the flame embark on a tour of the entire host country, taking in nine provinces and eight major cities, before it finally arrives at the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium in time for the Opening Ceremony on 9 February 2018.

 

The lighting ceremony is one of the most powerful rituals in the Olympic cycle. Taking place as it does against the backdrop of Olympia, it perhaps serves more than any other tradition to connect the modern Games with their ancient origins and like the messengers who proclaimed the sacred Olympic truce, the runners who carry the Olympic flame will carry a message of peace on their journey. Next week’s lighting ceremony will signal the start of that journey to bring the world together for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.  

 

During the ancient Olympics, a fire was kept burning throughout the Games. In the context of the modern Games, the flame only made its first appearance in Amsterdam in 1928. It was first featured at the Winter Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen eight year later.

 

 

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Τhe journey of the Torch Relay has started!

 

 

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Τhe First Torchbearer Apostolis Angelis carries the Olympic Flame.

 

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Τhe Second Torchbearer Park Ji-Sung carries the Olympic Flame.

 

 

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The flame is on!

Olympic countdown begins in Ancient Olympia

 

On Tuesday the Olympic Flame was lit in Ancient Olympia with just over three months to go until it will reach PyeongChang for the opening ceremony.

 

The Olympic flame has been a symbol of the Olympic Games since its classic era over 2,000 years ago and is lit every two years at the site of the classic Olympic Games at Ancient Olympia in Greece. It traditionally involves eleven women dressed in classic Greek style representing the Vestal Virgins who perform a ceremony at the Temple of Hera in which the Olympic torch is lit with the power of the sun by a parabolic mirror.

The ceremony was performed on Tuesday noon local time with representatives including International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee President Hee-beom Lee, the President of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Korea, Kee-Heung Lee, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, and Spyros Capralos, President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, among the speakers to start the final countdown to the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Also heads of the National Olympic Committees of the next Olympics were on-site including Zaiqing Yu from China where the 2022 Olympic Winter Games will take place.

Greek cross-country skier Apostolos Angelis, who has secured his participation in PyeongChang 2018, was the first torchbearer. He passed on the flame to Korean football player Park Ji-Sung.

 

Video: 

summary of the ceremony (1:18),

full video (>1h)
 

The flame will now tour for a seven-day relay through Greece. In one week it will be handed over to the Korean organizers at the over 2,300 years old Panathenaic Stadium in Athens where the first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896. From there the torch will travel 8,500 kilometres east.

On 1st November the Olympic Flame will land on Korean soil at the Incheon international airport near Seoul. Stars and prospects, or as the organizers say Achievers and Dreamers, will take part in the torch relay as the flame will travel across the Republic of Korea for 101 days to arrive in more than 150 cities in the country. It will first travel to Jeju Island for two days before continuing on the mainland in Busan on 4th November. 7,500 torch bearers will participate in the relay until the flame will lit the cauldron during the Opening Ceremony on 9th February 2018 in PyeongChang.

The relay will cover 2,018 kilometres by diverse means of transportation, including plane, ship, train, sailboat, zip wire, cable car and bike.

The first competitions will begin on 10th February including the women’s ice hockey tournament while the men’s ice hockey tournament will start on 14th February. The Olympic Winter Games will end on 25th February when the gold medal game of the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament will be one of the last events prior to the Closing Ceremony.

20 ice hockey teams from 13 countries will battle for medals at the ice hockey tournaments in PyeongChang 2018. Those will be played at the coastal city of Gangneung at the brand-new Gangneung Hockey Centre and the Kwangdong Hockey Centre.

 

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24 October 2017 - Day 1

 

Today Route

Ancient Olympia → Pyrgos → Amaliada → Ancient Ilida → Kalavrita → Patras

 

 

Celebrations

Olympic flame lighting ceremony in Ancient Olympia, site of the classic Olympic Games, and starting tour for a seven-day relay through Greece.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Janakis

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24 October 2017 - Day 1 Photos

Torch Relay

 

 

 

 

Video: 

summary of the day 1

Edited November 2, 2017 by Janakis