Olympic Flame Research Articles

Who still wants the Olympic Flame? Analysing the implementation of the Olympic Torch Relay of Paris 2024

ABSTRACT As the Games model becomes increasingly contested, Paris 2024 aims to set a new standard for sustainable mega-events. Explicit ambitions include making the Paris Games those of France, a crucial component for legacy. To achieve these goals, organisers ran several programmes with the Olympic Torch Relay (OTR) being one of the most emblematic. In this paper we analyse this nationwide mobilisation Olympic programme, in order to sought grasp on what happened between what is planned (enthusiasm anticipated and hoped for by organisers in associating territories with pre-Olympic activities) and what is perceived (controversy that arose following the refusal of many French departments to commit to the project). Adopting an interpretative approach of implementation, we identified three indicators to shed light on adherence’s mechanisms to the OTR. Local officials’ refusals more specifically stem from a rejection of the OTR’s implementation modalities rather than an outright rejection of the Games. Decisions made by the pro-Olympic coalition underscore a focus on population hubs and growth poles over rural areas. This inclination directing negotiations towards entities more conducive to contractualisation result as a neocorporatist model of implementation. Given the escalating controversies associated with mega sport events and the Olympic Games, this study offers a novel lens through which one can evaluate local elected officials’ relationship with Olympism.

Will the Olympic flame spark dengue outbreaks during the Paris 2024 summer Olympic and Paralympic games?

The risk of dengue emergence in France this summer is likely and must be considered in preparedness planning. The risk could arise from international visitors but also French travellers returning from epidemic areas. The French preparedness and response plan and the importance of international surveillance after the Olympics are highlighted.

Homage to a good man. Dr. Szabó Ioan † (1955-2023)

“Medicine is science and conscience warmed by love for human beings”- this motto of Iuliu Ha?ieganu, the founding father of our Medical School in Cluj-Napoca, burns like the Olympic flame from one generation of alumni to another. Like any flame, it is still vulnerable to currents and winds such as political ambitions, professional competition, overspecialization or cultural ignorance. Thus, to evoke the memory of someone like Dr. Szabó Ioan, who literally enacted this principle as his way of living, is not just an occasion of kind remembrance for the ones who knew him, but a source of inspiration for the ones who did not, a way to keep the flame alive.

The Merit of Stefan Chaprashikov for Carrying the Olympic Flame in 1936

The purpose of the present research is aimed at presenting new information related to the activities of Stefan Chaprashikov and his role in conducting the first Olympic torch relay for the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. Several areas for gathering information are covered: research of foreign literature, review of all publications of Bulgarian researchers in the field of the Olympic movement in Bulgaria, which present information on the subject. In terms of methodology, all information found in scientific and popular sources is systematized and processed on the basis of the biographical method, content analysis, comparative and critical analysis. This publication presents newly discovered information, in three articles from periodicals and in two official BOK documents, which present information that the idea of holding the first torch relay was Stefan Chaprashikov’s. These findings will shed light on the history of the Olympic movement in Bulgaria and will form a new perspective in discussions on the topic discussed by other contemporary researchers of the Olympic movement.

Thermoluminescence properties of the rock naturally annealed for thousands of years by flames from the earth's inner layers.

The gas leak in Chimaera near Çıralı, Antalya, has been active for thousands of years. It is also known to be the source of the first Olympic flame in the Hellenistic period. The sample taken from the Chimaere seepage annealed for thousands of years was determined to be calcite-magnesian (Ca, Mg)O3 . In this study, thermoluminescence (TL) properties of calcite-magnesian annealed for thousands of years in the fire caused by methane gas were investigated for particle size, dose-response, heating rate, and fading experiments. It exhibits a clear TL glow curve with two distinct peaks positioned at 160 and 330°C, and its shape is not affected by variation in applied dose and reproduciility of experiment. There is a wide linear relationship between TL output and applied dose up to 614 Gy. Although the positions of the TL peaks are stable with the cycle of measurement, a poor reusability was observed in terms of the area under the TL glow curve and peak intensity.

Women and the Olympic Flame for Tokyo and Beijing

Women and the Olympic Flame for Tokyo and Beijing

The 1952 and 1994 Olympic Flames: Norway’s Quest for Winter Olympic Identity

On two occasions, in 1952 and 1994, the Olympic Winter Games were entrusted to Norwegian organizers. As the only Nordic country to have hosted winter Olympics, the organizers of both games presented a version of the Olympic Winter Games and their increasingly fundamental and sacred symbols, which were not always in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) official interpretation, nor the international public’s understandings of these symbols, their origin, and meaning. For the 1952 winter games, Norway developed an original, separate winter Olympic flame and torch relay. Both the flame and torch relay exemplify specific Norwegian nation building, based on national sporting and cultural traditions, but also the importance of cultural invented symbols in sport, and the challenges that arise when national interpretations and expressions meet international interpretations. Myths and interpretations of the significance of the Norwegian hamlet of Morgedal in Telemark within skiing history challenged the IOC’s preferred Olympic flame protocols at both the Oslo 1952 and Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Winter Games.

Front and Back Covers, Volume 35, Number 3. June 2019

Front and back cover caption, volume 35 issue 3Front coverTHE RITUAL PROCESSVictor Turner developed van Gennep's concept of liminality, the transitional moment in rites of passage, into an innovative approach to the study of ritual dynamics. He also put the concepts of liminality and communitas to work, so as to understand larger processes of sociopolitical and cultural transformation such as those he was living through in the late 1960s. He was particularly interested in the relation between moments of transition, with their communitarian forms of sociality, and how – paradoxically – they failed to endure, giving rise to new forms of hierarchy.The covers of this special issue present two men jumping across thresholds, signalling its focus on transition. The anticipation and dramatization of transition is a key facet of the routinized ritual life of the Enawenê‐nawê, portrayed on the front cover, who live in southern Amazonia, Brazil. While most Enawenê‐nawê men are away fishing during the ritual season of Yankwa, hosts anticipate their return by performing a daily spectacle, ending with dramatic jumps into the flute house.During this time of mounting expectation, hosts adorn their bodies with particular care and their rousing performances cater to women and children who watch the spectacle from the dwellings that surround the open central arena. While circling the arena to elicit the fishermen's long‐awaited return, the hosts play chaotic and ludic flutes – known as ‘pets’ to the civilized melodic flutes – and take on their character.In this issue, Chloe Nahum‐Claudel argues that the Enawenê‐nawê have achieved permanent communitas – an egalitarian social structure – by living in a permanent state of transition.Back coverTHE OLYMPIAN'S THREE BODIESCompetitive sporting events have historically been a prime site of ritual. Indeed, many argue that sport itself is ritualistic in nature. The history of the Olympic Games demonstrates the complex way in which ritual relates to society and to the polity.The lighting of the Olympic flame and the Olympic torch relay are rituals that have been central to the Olympic Games since 1928 and 1936 respectively.Chinese gymnast Li Ning after running, suspended by wires, around the upper rim of the Bird's Nest National Stadium and flying up to light the cauldron with the Olympic flame, the apical act of the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony on 8 August 2008.As an individual body, Li won three gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, nearly 20 per cent of those attained by the national body of China as it re‐entered the Summer Games after a 32‐year absence.By 2008, Li was a national icon as well for his economic success under ‘reform and opening up’. Now heroic ritual custodianship of the Olympics' most sacred symbol of common humanity was added to his Olympian's status as a human body.Dramatic demonstration of the potential compatibility of Individuality, Nationality and Humanity is at the heart of Olympic ideology and ritual practice and the global attention paid to them.In this issue, John J. MacAloon analyzes the familiar Olympic victory ceremony and its infrequent alterations, such as the reversal in 2002 from gold‐silver‐bronze to the bronze‐silver‐gold medal presentation sequencing we know today.

Olympic or Sacred? The Controversy over the Flame at the Inaugural 1951 Pan-American Games and Its Aftermath

In 1951, Buenos Aires hosted the inaugural Pan-American Games. On February 25 of that year, a Greek athlete carried a flame flown specially from his country onto the stadium where the event’s opening ceremonies took place and lit the cauldron. The uncertain character of the Greek flame transported to Buenos Aires alarmed many in Olympic circles. Confused and concerned, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) investigated the matter, which led to a rapid succession of policy changes seeking to regulate the use of flames in regional games. The flame flown from Greece to Buenos Aires for the 1951 Pan-American Games sparked an intense debate about the status of the Olympic flame. The IOC’s recognition of the power of the Olympic flame ritual and its preoccupation with protecting it along with other Olympic symbols and terminology reveal the contours of the organization’s ideology in this era and its relations with associated entities. The flame debate also illuminates the push by Pan-American Games’ officials for autonomy. Clearly, Olympic officials recognized early in the 1950s that the globalization of the Olympic flame ritual required regulation if the IOC was to ensure control of this and its other symbolic resources.

Negotiating absence: Bernard Tschumi’s new Acropolis Museum in Athens

The ambition to inaugurate the new Acropolis Museum illuminated by the Olympic flame of 2004 and broadcast worldwide was not fulfilled. Difficulties and delays of practical, economic and archaeological nature were in the end less daunting than the political, legal and ideological obstacles to the aspiration of crowning the new museum with the Elgin Marbles, which were moved to London about two hundred years ago. The expatriation of the Parthenon fragments and the repeated requests for repatriation, both brought to play in Bernard Tschumi's highly persuasive structure, define a striking prism through which to look at some of the urgent and conflicting issues haunting the museum institution today (Fig. 1).Driven by the ideals of enlightenment, the idea of the public, universal museum, perfect and complete, proliferated at the turn of the nineteenth century. In 1796, only three years after the foundation of the Muséum Français (the later Musée du Louvre), Antoine Chrysostôme Quatremère de Quincy advised passionately against the relocation of antique monuments to European capitals in his ‘Lettres au géneral Miranda sur le préjudice qu'occasionnens aux arts et à la science le déplacement des monumens de l'art de l'Italie, Le démembrement de ses écoles, et la spoliation de ses collections, galeries, musées, etc.’1 In hindsight, however, the physical removal of ancient art and architecture marks not only the decontextualisation of these objects, but also their re-location from one discourse to another. Once relocated to the museum, architectural elements are invested with new functions and historical and aesthetic values that radically alter their significance.Thus, as Greece today reclaims the Elgin Marbles by means of a compelling architectural rhetoric, the discourse on decontextualisation gets a new twist, now including the possible re-contextualisation of a fragment whose original context has changed beyond recognition. In fact, Quatremère himself anticipated this delicious paradox in his Canova-correspondence of 1818 on the Parthenon Collection in London. Here, Quatremère addressed with surprising precision a fundamental museo-theoretical problem regarding decontextualisation as well as re-contextualisation; a problem to which Tschumi's design for the new Acropolis Museum gives such an eloquent architectural manifestation.

Thinking Barcelona: Ideologies of a Global City by Edgar Illas

Reviewed by: Thinking Barcelona: Ideologies of a Global City by Edgar Illas Benjamin Fraser Thinking Barcelona: Ideologies of a Global City Liverpool UP, 2012 by Edgar Illas In Thinking Barcelona, Edgar Illas sets his sights on exploring “the ideological constructs that accompanied the conversion of Barcelona into a global city” (2). In the Introduction, he builds on and carefully distinguishes his contribution from work by Joan Roca i Albert, Mari Paz Balibrea, Joan Ramon Resina, Donald McNeill and Manuel Delgado Ruiz, all the while disentagling oversimplifications of Marxism and referencing the likes of Althusser, Harvey, Jameson, Rancière, and Negri. From these [End Page 289] opening pages the reader may correctly surmise that Illas wants to interrogate each term in his book’s title: not just “Barcelona,” then, but also the part about “Thinking.” What results is an ambitious work with a theoretical throughline of its own. Fittingly, given that this is a book in part about contradiction—or as he writes “the problematic fusion of capitalist and democratic aims” (7)—Illas’s prose is never satisfied. In content, he is attentive to disagreements and “internal discordances” (7); in style, he is aware that each point has a counterpoint. This book is at once skeptical and critical: of a state that “can deploy exact copies of all sorts of civil forums and social movements” in one given case (the Fòrum Universal de les Cultures), making it “impossible to distinguish between real political struggle and its simulacrum” (10); and of what I will describe as a problematically romanticized and abstract view of “the people” that obtains equally, perhaps, in the discourse of both urban boosters and urban critics, for example. But still, in his conclusions and despite his extensive critique, there is a hint of optimism: he would like to “devise possibilities for future transformative urban projects” (7), or as he repeats at the book’s close, to hope for “future urban transformations” (222). Chapter one marshals notions of the specter to confront late capitalism’s ideological machinery through discussion of events such as the Universal Exhibition of 1888, the International Exhibition of 1929, the aborted 1936 Popular Olympics, and the Barcelona Games of 1992. Here Eduardo Mendoza’s La ciudad de los prodigios (1986) (56-62, 74-75, and a brief but important segment analyzed on 136) and speeches by the Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Mayor Pascual Maragall function as impetus to fuse cultural production and the political and economic dimensions of urbanism. Chapter two interrogates the contradictions of discourse touting urban cosmopolitanism through Maragall’s script (written by Xavier Rubert de Ventós) delivered at the reception of the Olympic flame, the text of “The Rio-Barcelona 1992 Declaration,” and Francisco Casavella’s novel El triunfo (1991) (110-17). Chapter three looks at urban regeneration from 1981 to 1992, incorporating short stories by Quim Monzó (169-76) and focusing perhaps on Oriol Bohigas’ gravitation toward public spaces of the city—reading the latter in light of the contradictions of Kenneth Framption’s program on Critical Regionalism. Chapter four seeks to recover the potential of master plans as a way of ensuring urban continuity, to recognize a contradiction in the promotion of urban public spaces, and ultimately to link urban planning and grassroots democracy. While the book throughout is a strong and welcome contribution, I was most impacted by what I see as the fourth chapter’s exploration of the contradictions of urban planning. Here Illas moves beyond Barcelona in order to return to it. Swiftly and at an accelerating pace readers are carried through cities across the globe—Pearl River Delta cities, African cities, the European city, the Japanese city, Mexico ity—and more important they are simultaneously carried through the various ways in which theorists have been thinking cities across the globe. At the end of this journey are two sections titled “Master Plans and Public Space” (199-210) and “Urban Public Spaces” (210-17) that abutt the book’s conclusion. Earlier in this chapter Illas had noted that “master planning is a vital tool to control the unremitting forces of private interests” and lamented that in the Barcelona model, failure came from the...

‘The Day the Flame Came to Town’: The Olympic Flame, Symbol, Community and Commodification

Debates regarding the Olympic Flame Relay oscillate between questions concerning the symbolic value of the Relay and the commodified nature of the Games more generally. While some argue for the potential intercultural understanding that the Flame Relay fosters, others point to the extent to which Olympism is embedded within the practices of commercial companies. Research thus tends to use either ethnographic accounts or media analysis—the former being seen by some as authentic and the latter viewed as capable of capturing the commodified context of such consumption. Attention is given here to its visit to one town and how people experienced the Relay themselves, against its (re)construction in local and national mediated accounts. Data were collected from interviews with those watching the Flame Relay, extensive photographic records, fieldwork observations, and local media coverage of the event. The ritual itself appeared temporary, superficial and contoured by the major sponsors of the Relay. While the Flame had some local significance, claims made for its broader symbolic value appeared muted—people knew less about Olympism and were less moved by its symbolism.

Why 1984 Medalist Li Ning Lit the Flame at the Beijing 2008 Olympics: The Contribution of the Los Angeles Olympics to China's Market Reforms

After the Communist victory in 1949, the People's Republic of China was excluded from most world organisations. China withdrew from the International Olympic Committee in 1958 in protest over its continued recognition of Taiwan, and since it supported the US boycott of the Moscow 1980 Olympics, it did not return to the summer games until the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. While the diplomatic importance of those games is well known, their importance for China's economic reforms has not been discussed. The Los Angeles Games not only played an important role in the revitalisation of Chinese national identity, but also provided an eye-popping example of marketised sport and mega-events just as the economic reforms were launched. The Los Angeles Games were the first televised broadcast of the popular culture of the West to a wide Chinese audience. The deep impression they left on their Chinese viewers helped to launch China towards becoming the economic power that it became a quarter of a century later. This was symbolically represented at China's first Olympic Games in 2008, when the Olympic flame was lit by Li Ning, the gold medalist in Los Angeles who founded a sporting goods company that is considered as one of the hallmark cases of the reforms.

Clad with national identity: parade uniforms of the Olympic Games

The Olympic Games has been one of the most watched and exciting sports events in the world since its modern revival in 1896. A highlight of each Games is the Opening Ceremony featuring the lighting of the Olympic Flame, performances created by the host country, and the parade of participants. Billions of people watch athletes from different nations dressed in uniforms of diverse colours and styles march in procession. This study began with an examination of the relationship between the parade uniforms of the national teams participating in the Games and nationalism, followed by the various ways in which national identity is visually communicated through this ceremonial sport attire. The meanings and functions of the uniforms were analysed to demonstrate how design elements denote cultural and geographical differences, as well as how they were visually represented in the garments.

Semiotic representations of Olympic mascots revisited

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to review Olympic mascots in the electronic and traditional communications environments.Design/methodology/approach– Olympic mascots from 2006 to 2012 are analyzed using a descriptive semiotic analysis technique.Findings– Results found that none of the 2006-2012 mascots clearly represented the two most recognizable icons of the Olympic movement, the Olympic Rings and the Olympic Flame. The association of the London 2012 mascots with the Olympic Games are found to be limited.Research limitations/implications– This research sets the stage for a number of future studies to further assess the management issues, social benefits, and potential missteps regarding mascots at the Olympic Games and other mega-events.Practical implications– The practitioner of today working for a mega-event like the Olympic Games needs to be aware of the potential benefits and inherent risks of developing and implementing a mascot.Originality/value– This research is the first to look specifically at Olympic mascots in the electronic age and contrast their use to traditional communications.

First across the Line

Unduly influenced, perhaps, by the Olympic flame alight in London, I have been staggered by the number of microbial “firsts” recorded by European countries in the scientific literature during 2012.

Promoting heath in 2012: embracing alternative evaluation designs, working practices and service delivery modes

An Olympic year brings suspense, the utmost of human endeavour, glory and jubilation, but also tears and disappointment for athletes, spectators and politicians alike (Cashman 2006). This year heralds the return of the Olympic flame to U.K. shores, but with it some profound and deeply testing concerns. Escalating costs of health care, housing and food, in addition to progressive economic decline and attendant austerity measures are challenging the health and quality of life of many communities. Thus, the joy and jubilation of the Olympics and Paralympic Games provides a useful although temporary distraction from the day-to-day concerns of rising unemployment, dwindling access and accessibility to health and public services for governments, policy makers, public health professionals and researchers.

The 2004 International Relay: a Greek around the world with the Olympic Flame

This paper presents a first-hand experience of the 2004 Athens International Olympic Flame Relay (IOFR) from the perspective of one of the Greek team members who accompanied the flame. It provides a rich description of the mechanics of the relay itself, demonstrating that it involved complex international exchanges. It is about much more than the torchbearers. The author describes life on the road with the flame, highlighting the cultural, political, and personal challenges entailed in this endeavour. It explores the tensions: between sponsor interests and the spirit of Olympism; from professional ‘world's best practices’ implementation of the relay to volunteers' expectations of their roles and experiences; and in the division of labour between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and Olympic Games Organizing Committees (OCOGs) as stakeholders.

Hybridity and subversion: the Olympic flame in India

This article presents the results of a field study of the 2008 Olympic Flame Relay in Delhi, India, where Tibetan and pro-Tibetan protests against the Chinese Olympic hosts generated a state security transformation of Olympic ritual and a parallel Tibetan counter-performance. These events are placed in the context of earlier Indian practices of indigenization of the Olympic Flame Relay in 1960, 1964, and 2004. If Delhi 2004 represented a further hybridization of indigenous and international ‘best practices’ models for flame relays, Delhi 2008 demonstrated the failure of the standard model to cope with the political and moral forces unleashed when the host nation is as challenged as China in the field of human rights. This article concludes with an analysis of the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, showing the chaotic caricature that results when transnational standard practices for relays of sports festival icons are completely set aside.

Struggling to celebrate: management of the 2004 Olympic Flame Relay segment in Greece

This article offers a first-hand account of the experiences of an advance manager of the flame relay team of the Athens Olympic Games Organizing Committee (ATHOC). It covers the first and third segments of this relay within Greece and offers a focused description of the standard celebration events that punctuated the passage of the Olympic Flame. Organizational and managerial successes and failures shape the public experience of the Olympic Flame Relay (OFR), and the celebrations join the local and the global into performances of special demographic and symbolic power. In the model adopted for the 2004 OFR, these celebrations offered particular targets of attention for the various stakeholders (ATHOC departments, commercial sponsors, national government cultural officials, local authorities, and police). Power struggles among the various stakeholders are analysed, and the tactics deployed by sponsors to win these struggles are particularly revealed in a case study of the battle over the relay anthem. This article provides a rare published account of the experience of being a flame relay staff organizer under the emergent ‘world's best practices’ model.