Olympic Cauldron HDR at Sunrise

nobody@flickr.com (GillTy.) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:51:45 -0800

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On February 12, 2010 Wayne Gretzky exited BC Place, with his torch still lit, and was driven via a VANOC vehicle to Jack Poole Plaza adjacent to the Vancouver Convention Center in Coal Harbour, where he lit the Outdoor Olympic Cauldron. This makes Gretzky the first person to light two official cauldrons in the same Olympics.

Vancouver 2010 Torch Relay
This edition of the Olympic Torch Relay will be the longest national relay ever held. The flame will be lit in Olympia on 22 October 2009, and from 30 October 2009 until 12 February 2010, the Olympic Flame will visit over 1,000 communities and places of interest in Canada, as 12,000 torchbearers carry it on its 45,000-kilometre journey.

History of the Olympic Flame
The first relay of the Winter Games took place during the 1952 Games in Oslo. This first relay did not start in Olympia, Greece, but in the valley of Morgedal in Norway. The region, considered as the birthplace of skiing, was chosen as a reminder of the origins of this sport. The flame was lit in the hearth of the chalet belonging to Sondre Norheim, a legendary figure in Norwegian skiing.

At the Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956, the flame was lit in front of the Capitol in Rome, as the city had been elected host of the Games of the XVII Olympiad. The tripod used for the ceremony was sent from Olympia. At the Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, the flame was once again lit in Norway, at Sondre Norheim’s chalet. The inscription on the torch “Olympia to Squaw Valley” is a reference to an attempt to start the relay in Olympia, which did not succeed as the time period was too restricted. Since the Innsbruck Games in 1964, the relay for the Winter Games has begun in Olympia.

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Olympic Cauldron HDR at Sunrise