History of the Olympic Flame

Canada's Robyn Perry, Cathy Preistner and Ken Read, Opening Ceremony, Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games.

Source: Library and Archives Canada.

The Olympic Flame is a symbol of peace among nations participating in the Olympic Games.

Introduced during the Opening Ceremony of the Amsterdam Games in 1928, the Olympic Flame assumed an even greater significance during the first torch relay at the 1936 Berlin Games.

Since then, the torch relay has become an important event leading up to the Olympic Games. Organized by the host city of the Games, each stop in the torch relay gives the city being visited an opportunity to create a memorable event around the Flame's arrival.

Several months before the Opening Ceremony, the Flame is lit in Olympia, Greece, by a fire ignited from the sun's rays.

From Olympia, the torch travels across several countries to the host city of the Olympic Games where the Flame, as one of the most important symbols of the Olympic Games, heralds their beginning.

On the opening day of the Games, the torch is taken into the stadium and the chosen torchbearer lights the cauldron. This ritual symbolizes the continuity between ancient times and the new generations. The Flame burns for the entire duration of the Games and is extinguished during the Closing Ceremony of the competition.

In Canada, during the Montréal Olympic Games a technological innovation to light the Flame was pioneered by using a laser beam, via satellite, to transmit the Olympic Flame from Greece to Canada. This widely broadcast event elicited an enormous amount of interest on the part of the Canadian population.

Route of the Olympic torch relay, Calgary 1988 Winter Olympic Games

Source: Hobson, Alan. Share the Flame: the Official Retrospective Book of the Olympic Torch Relay. Edited by Elaine Jones. Vancouver: Murray/Love Productions, 1988, p.13. © Murray Love Productions Inc. Reproduced with the permission of Derik A. Murray.

The organizers of the Calgary Games had the distinction of staging one of the longest torch relays in the entire history of the Olympic Games. From Newfoundland to Calgary, with a detour to Inuvik, above the Arctic Circle, the torch traveled through Canada's ten provinces and two territories.

At the end of the 88-day relay, having covered a distance of 18000 kilometres, the torch arrived at its destination. By that time, more than 7000 people had carried the Olympic Torch. The presence of the Flame in Canada and its long journey enabled tens of thousands of citizens to share the Olympic experience.