TRACKING THE TORCH

The Torch Relay

Although the Torch is still carried by runners most of the time, it has been transported in many different ways. It travelled by boat in 1948 across the English Channel and it was first transported by aeroplane in 1952, when the fire travelled to Helsinki. In 1956, the equestrian events were held separately because of strict quarantine regulations in Australia. All carriers in the torch relay to Stockholm, where these events were held instead, travelled on horseback. In 1976, the flame was transformed into a radio signal. From Athens, this signal was carried by satellite to Canada, where it was received and used to trigger a laser beam to re-light the flame. In 2000, the torch was carried under water by divers near the Great Barrier Reef. In 2004, the first global torch relay was undertaken, a journey that lasted 78 days, covered more than 78,000 km, in the hands of some 11,300 torchbearers, travelling to Africa and South America for the first time, visiting all previous Olympic cities and finally returning to Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics. This year, the torch relay started this week from Olympia, and will cover Central Asia, Europe, North and South America, South and South East Asia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Australia before the domestic leg in China starts. When the torch lands in Delhi on April 17, Aamir Khan, Kiran Bedi and the Coca-Cola CEO will be among the bearers of the torch. Coca-Cola is the worldwide partner for the Olympics. It is only twice in the history of modern Olympics that the flame has gone out from the time the torch was lit to when that year8217;s Games ended.

Politics 038; the Games

8226; The 1936 Berlin Games were seen by the Hitler Government as a golden opportunity to promote its Fascist ideology. The Fuhrer famously snubbed Black sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals

8226; At the 1956 Melbourne Games, a water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union had to be called off after political tensions resulted in pitched battle between the teams

8226; The 1960 Rome Games saw the arrival on the world scene of a light heavyweight boxer named Cassius Clay. He would later become Muhammad Ali and throw his gold medal away in disgust after being refused service in a 8220;Whites only8221; restaurant in his home town. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ali, visibly afflicted by Parkinson8217;s, would be given a replacement for that medal

8226; Already in the middle of a controversy over altitude affecting performances of athletes, the 1968 Mexico City Games were shaken when medal winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos each gave the 8220;Black Power8221; salute on the podium. The US team and the International Olympic Committee condemned the incident, but it generated much sympathy elsewhere

8226; The 1972 Munich Olympics will always be remembered for the attack on the Games Village by a Palestinian group named Black September, which held several members of the Israeli weightlifting team hostage, and killed two of them. The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous Arab prisoners. Eventually the captors, still holding their hostages, were offered safe passage and taken to an airport, where they were ambushed by German security forces. In the firefight that followed, 15 people, including the remaining nine Israeli athletes and all but one of the terrorists were killed. After much debate, it was decided that the Games continue. Few remember that these were the same Games where US swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals.

8226; African nations boycotted the 1976 Montreal Games protesting against the tour of apartheid South Africa by a New Zealand rugby side

8226; US and several other Western countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet Union8217;s invasion of Afghanistan

8226; In a tit-for-tat, the Soviet Union, and much of Eastern Europe, boycotted the Los Angeles Games of 1984