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THE OLYMPIC FLAME AND TORCH RUNS
The first Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony was in Olympia, Greece, 1936
At the time of the first torch lighting ceremony ever in Olympia, Greece, I was ten years old and had already attended my first Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February 1936 with my uncle. Being a high sports official of Austria and the Austrian Olympic Committee, he was invited to go to Olympia, Greece representing Austria, and he took me along, which I enjoyed immensely and still remember so well, as if it had happened yesterday. The day before the ceremony we visited some of the ruins where the temples once stood and early the day of the ceremony, we made arrangements for a guide whom we met at about seven in the morning in order to see everything and not miss the lighting ceremony which was at about 12 noon or so and lasted about two hours and I remember that we were invited to a luncheon after the ceremony with many Greek and foreign Officials that were there as well. If you want to know more about the ancient temples, please go to the link of "ANCIENT OLYMPICS 1", where I wrote all about the temples and items of interest. It is really very interesting.
The Olympic Torch Ceremonies of Olympia, Greece, happened for the very first time on 20 July 1936 for the 1936 Summer Olympics when the "High Priestess" ignited the Sacred Flame in the sun rays heated high gloss parabolic cauldron, at the site between the ancient Olympic Stadium and the temple of Zeus, and reenacting what Dr Karl Diem, the Director of the Berlin Torch Relay, imagined to have happened more than 2,700 years earlier, using a High Priestess and 14 Young Maidens for the Ceremony that chanted " Oh fire, lit in an ancient and sacred place, begin your race " and singing Pythian odes on ancient instruments. But in reality none of this has ever happened, because there is absolutely no record of it that has been found, other than the two flames burning constantly in front of the Prytaneion, and no record of any torch lighting ceremonies or torch runs at any of Olympic festivals in Olympia. There were torch runs and lighting ceremonies at other Olympic festivals throughout Greece after the festival in Olympia was already established several hundred years after, but none existed when the Olympic festivals started in Olympia.
At the 1936 Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony, after all the the High Priestess lit the torch from the fire of the shiny cauldron and handed it to the first torchbearer, a Greek by the name of Konstantinos Kondrylis, who left the fesatival site in Olympia to meet the next runner and relay the flame to all the other torchbearers and so it went on until it ended at the newly built Olympic Stadium in Berlin on August 1st 1936 for which it took 3,331 torchbearers 12 days and 13 nights, traveling 3,050 Kilometers through seven countries from Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and to Germany, where the cauldron at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin was lit from the sacred fire that I saw being ignited in Olympia, and I feel lucky that I was able to see all this happen and seeing the sacred flame for the second time when it arrived in Vienna on July 29 at 8.45 in the evening, carried by 1932 Lake Placid and 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen gold medal winner, figure skater Karl Schaefer, who lit the cauldron during a nice ceremony at the Heldenplatz, attended by Bundeskanzler Dr. Kurt Schuschnigg and other dignitaries, including my parents who were also invited. Then I saw the torch ceremony for the third time at the Lustgarten on 1st of August, three hours before the Olympic Opening Ceremony at the Berlin Olympic Stadium started, when the flame arrived, being carried by a boy of the Hitler Youths, who lit the Olympic cauldron at the Lustgarten and spoke a few words. The ceremony was attended by top Nazi Officials, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels who made a long speech and Reichsfuehrer Rudolf Hess among them.
The museum honors the Olympic Flame and Torch Runs by displays of Olympic Torches, Uniforms, Diplomas and other items that relate to past and present Torch Runs from 1936 until present, over 75 years of collecting torches, with the Olympic Torch Exhibits having been a favorite among visitors to the museum. Whenever I was invited to be a torchbearer and carry the Olympic Torch I considered it a great honor which reminded me of the events in Olympia and the great time I had, as well as at the other ceremonies, when I was only ten years old. During the ancient times, the sacred Olympic Flame burned at all times from 776 B.C. until the last Olympics of A.D.393 in the two cauldrons at the Prytaneion, the Administration building in Olympia. And for the first time during the modern era, the Olympic Flame burnt at the Marathon tower of the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium in 1928 and the next time for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics at the Coliseum for the duration of the Los Angeles Olympics of 1932, but still for the last time without the wonderful Torch Relays before the Berlin Olympics.
As historic documents of the Prytaneon had it, according to Greek mythology, Prometheus went to heaven and stole a spark from the sacred fire of the Gods and brought it to Earth and gave it to Zeus, where it became the symbol of human reasoning, freedom and creativity. The Olympic Flame is in actuality that true symbol of the Olympics of the modern era, as it has been since 776 B.C. for the Ancient Games at the Prytaneon and torch relays which existed in Greece for Sport Festivals, 200 years after the first games of Olympia, for the games of Rhodes, Crete, Thebes, the Corinthian games and the sport festivals of Athens. But Olympic Torch Relays of Olympia, have only existed specially originated for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Organizing President Dr. Karl Diem for Nazi Propaganda by orders from Joseph Goebbels and approved by Adolf Hitler, and it is truly a great spectacle for the people that line the streets and wait to see the torch pass, which is a wonderful experience for millions of spectators and many times the only event, related to the Olympics that people are able to afford to watch live. And although it was not taken from the ancient archives of Olympia, but imagined by Dr. Diem, it is a great spectacle for the people and at ten I was immensely impressed by the four ceremonies, especially the ones in Olympia and Berlin, and I must give high credit to Dr. Karl Diem for presenting such a great event.
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