The flame for the Olympic Games in Brazil has been lit in southern Greece, the BBC reports.
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A dancer dressed as priestesses lights the Olympic flame with a parabolic mirror during the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia, Greece, Thursday, April 21, 2016.
The countdown to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games has kicked up a notch with the official lighting of the Olympic flame and the Rio 2016 torch.
Thursday’s ceremony marks the 80-year anniversary since the relay, which did not exist in the ancient Greek Olympics and was introduced by the Nazi organisers of the 1936 Berlin Games.
Greek world gymnastics champion Eleftherios Petrounias took the flame and handed it to Brazilian former volleyball great Giovane Gavio to start the relay.
The relay will continue through Greece for six days before shifting to Brazil, where it will begin a 15-week journey ending at the opening ceremony on August 5.
“The Games start today with the lighting of the flame”, Carlos Nuzman, president of the Rio 2016 organising committee, said. “Everything was done, so no impact”, he said.
“Rio de Janeiro… will provide a spectacular to showcase the best of the human spirit. 98 percent of all infrastructure is ready”, Bach told reporters later.
“This is the beginning of… the last stretch of the organization”, Bach said.
The Olympic torch for this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was lit this morning in Ancient Olympia, Greece.
“We had our share of thoughts before coming to this”, said Mario Andrada, spokesperson for the Rio Games. “We wanted to give them a flag, with the Olympic flag…an anthem to identify with – the Olympic anthem”.
The flame is due to arrive in Brazil on 3 May for a relay across the country, travelling through hundreds of cities and villages in every Brazilian state.
It will pass through 329 towns and cities, travelling more than 20,000 kilometres by road and 10,000 miles by air around the host country, and be carried by 12,000 torchbearers. After the first night in the Maracana, the flame will depart for an undisclosed downtown location for the rest of the games.
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Instead, the torch will be lit at the stadium to open the Olympics, and then be moved to a different location in downtown Rio.
