List of people who have lit the Olympic Cauldron

Li Ning, a former Chinese gymnast, lit the Olympic Cauldron during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The tradition of carrying the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Ancient Olympic Games, to the host city of the modern Olympic Games via a torch relay was first introduced in 1936, ahead of the Berlin Games. Since then, famous athletes (active or retired) with significant sporting achievements while representing the host country were allowed to be the last runner in the Olympic torch relay and consequently have the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony.

History

The first well-known athlete to light the cauldron was nine-time Olympic champion Paavo Nurmi at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Other famous final torch bearers include French football star Michel Platini (1992), heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali (1996), Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman (2000), and Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky (2010).

On other occasions, the people who lit the cauldron were not famous but nevertheless symbolized the Olympic ideals. Japanese runner Yoshinori Sakai was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb. He symbolized the rebirth of Japan after the Second World War when he lit the Olympic cauldron of the 1964 Summer Olympics. At the 1976 Games in Montreal, two teenagers—representing the French- and the English-speaking parts of the country—symbolized the unity of Canada. Norway's Crown Prince Haakon lit the cauldron of the 1994 Winter Olympics, in honor of his father and grandfather, both Olympians. For the 2012 Games in London, seven aspiring young athletes—each nominated by a former British Olympic champion—had the honor of lighting the cauldron.

People who have lit the Olympic Cauldron

Fritz Schilgen carrying the Olympic torch down the steps of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin

Giancarlo Peris running with the torch on the track at the Olympic Stadium in Rome

Games	Location	Lighter	Sport	Note	Ref
1936 Summer	Berlin	Fritz Schilgen	Track and field	Schilgen was not a competitor at the Olympics, but was chosen for his graceful running style.	[1]
1948 Summer	London	John Mark	Track and field	Little-known former medical student from Cambridge University.	[2]
1952 Winter	Oslo	Eigil Nansen	Non-athlete	Grandson of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. He is the first non-athlete to light the flame.	[3]
1952 Summer	Helsinki	Paavo Nurmi	Track and field	Nurmi was a winner of nine Olympic gold medals in the 1920s; Kolehmainen won four Olympic gold medals. Nurmi lit a cauldron on field level before handing the torch to four soccer players who relayed the torch to the top of the tower. Kolehmainen then lit the final, higher-placed cauldron.	[4]
		Hannes Kolehmainen
1956 Winter	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Guido Caroli	Speed skating	Participant in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics. Skating with the torch, he tripped over a television cable but kept the flame burning.	[5]
1956 Summer	Melbourne	Ron Clarke (Melbourne)	Track and field	Clarke would later win an Olympic bronze medal in 1964; Wikne participated in the 1964 Olympics. After Wikne lit the brazier on the infield, the flame was passed on to Karin Lindberg and Henry Ericksson, who separately ran up the two towers of the Stockholm Olympic Stadium.	[6]
		Hans Wikne (Stockholm)	Equestrianism
1960 Winter	Squaw Valley	Ken Henry	Speed skating	Olympic champion in 500 m speed skating at the 1952 Games.	[7]
1960 Summer	Rome	Giancarlo Peris	Track and field	Track athlete of Greek descent. The Italian National Olympic Committee decided that the last torchbearer of the Olympic Games would be the winner of a junior cross country running race. Peris won and was chosen to be the last torchbearer.	[8]
1964 Winter	Innsbruck	Josef Rieder	Alpine skiing	Participant in the 1956 Olympics.	[9]
1964 Summer	Tokyo	Yoshinori Sakai	Track and field	Sakai was born on the same day the atom bomb exploded over his native Hiroshima. He never participated in the Olympics.	[10]
1968 Winter	Grenoble	Alain Calmat	Figure skating	Winner of the silver medal in the 1964 Olympics.	[11]
1968 Summer	Mexico City	Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo	Track and field	Sprinter who participated in these Olympics; the first woman to light the main Olympic cauldron.	[12]
1972 Winter	Sapporo	Hideki Takada	Speed skating		[13]
1972 Summer	Munich	Günther Zahn	Track and field	Middle distance runner. Winner at the German junior athletics championships.	[14]
1976 Winter	Innsbruck	Christl Haas	Alpine skiing	Haas won the Olympic downhill title in 1964; Feistmantl won luge doubles in the same year.	[15]
		Josef Feistmantl	Luge
1976 Summer	Montreal	Stéphane Préfontaine	Track and field	Two teenagers representing English and French Canada. Neither of them would participate in future Olympics.	[16]
		Sandra Henderson
1980 Winter	Lake Placid	Charles Gugino	Non-athlete	Doctor from Arizona who had been elected from all 52 bearers to run the final leg.	[17]
1980 Summer	Moscow	Sergey Belov	Basketball	Member of the Soviet Basketball team who won four Olympic medals, including a gold in 1972.	[18]
1984 Winter	Sarajevo	Sanda Dubravčić	Figure skating	Participant in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.	[19]
1984 Summer	Los Angeles	Rafer Johnson	Track and field	Winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Olympics.	[20]
1988 Winter	Calgary	Robyn Perry	Figure skating	A 12-year-old schoolgirl and aspiring figure skater.	[21]
1988 Summer	Seoul	Chung Sun-man	Non-athlete	Chung Sun-Man was a schoolteacher. Sohn was a young Korean dancer. Kim Won-tak was a young track athlete who took part in that year's marathon.	[22]
		Sohn Mi-chung
		Kim Won-tak	Track and field
1992 Winter	Albertville	Michel Platini	Association football	Platini took part with the French Football team in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Grange was an future alpine skier (and older brother of future multiple time alpine akiing Slalom World Champion Jean-Baptiste Grange) and was nine years old at the time, becoming the youngest final lighter in history.	[23]
		François-Cyrille Grange	Alpine skiing
1992 Summer	Barcelona	Antonio Rebollo	Archery	Paralympian who competed in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Summer Paralympic Games, winning two silvers and a bronze. The only Paralympian ever to light the Olympic Cauldron, Rebollo shot a flaming arrow over an open natural gas cauldron to ignite it.	[24]
1994 Winter	Lillehammer	Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway	Non-athlete	Heir apparent to the throne of Norway. Though he was not an Olympian, both his father and grandfather took part in the Olympics and he lit the cauldron on their behalf. His father declared the games open.	[25]
1996 Summer	Atlanta	Muhammad Ali	Boxing	Winner of Olympic gold in 1960 and considered to be the greatest boxer of all time.	[26]
1998 Winter	Nagano	Midori Ito	Figure skating	Winner of Olympic silver in 1992.	[27]
2000 Summer	Sydney	Cathy Freeman	Track and field	Winner of Olympic silver in 1996 and Olympic gold in these Olympics, both in the 400 m. She is the only person ever to light a cauldron and win a gold medal in the same games.	[28]
2002 Winter	Salt Lake City	The 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team	Ice hockey	Famous for the "Miracle on Ice"; an upset of the Soviet Union team en route to the gold medal.	[29]
2004 Summer	Athens	Nikolaos Kaklamanakis	Sailing	Winner of Olympic gold in 1996 and silver in these Olympics.	[30]
2006 Winter	Turin	Stefania Belmondo	Cross-country skiing	Winner of ten Olympic medals, two of them gold. One of Italy's most decorated Olympians.	[31]
2008 Summer	Beijing	Li Ning	Artistic gymnastics	Winner of six Olympic medals including three gold, in 1984. He was China's most successful athlete at their first Olympic appearance since 1952.	[32]
2010 Winter	Vancouver	Steve Nash (indoor cauldron)	Basketball	Le May Doan was a winner of two gold medals in the 500 m in 1998 and 2002 and a bronze in the 1000 m in 1998. Nash is a two-time NBA MVP with the Phoenix Suns and a former member of the Canadian Olympic Basketball team. Greene won gold in the giant slalom and silver in the slalom in 1968. Gretzky was a member of the Canadian ice hockey team and won four Stanley Cup titles as captain of the Edmonton Oilers (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988). He was the Executive Director of the Canadian men's hockey team in 2002, who won gold at those games. During the opening ceremony, Nash, Greene and Gretzky lit a cauldron inside the BC Place indoor stadium. Gretzky then lit a second, outdoor cauldron near the Vancouver Convention Centre. Only the outdoor cauldron remained lit throughout the Games. Le May Doan was supposed to participate in the lighting of the indoor cauldron, but was left out when one of the four arms failed to raise due to mechanical problems. This was corrected at the beginning of the closing ceremony, when a joke was made about the mechanical error, and she was able to light the newly emerged fourth arm and relight the indoor cauldron to begin the closing ceremony.	[33][34][35]
		Nancy Greene (indoor cauldron)	Alpine skiing
		Wayne Gretzky (indoor & outdoor cauldrons)	Ice hockey
		Catriona Le May Doan (closing ceremony)	Speed skating
2012 Summer	London	Desiree Henry	Track and field	The cauldron was lit by seven aspiring young athletes, each nominated by a veteran British Olympian: Airlie was nominated by Shirley Robertson, Duckitt by Duncan Goodhew, Henry by Daley Thompson, Kirk by Dame Mary Peters, MacRitchie by Sir Steve Redgrave, Reynolds by Lynn Davies and Tracey by Dame Kelly Holmes. Austin Playfoot later relit the cauldron in its new spot in the Olympic Stadium. The seven youngsters are commonly referred to as the "Secret Seven" as their identity and role was a closely guarded secret until the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. Henry would later go on to win an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m in 2016.	[36][37]
		Katie Kirk
		Aidan Reynolds
		Adelle Tracey
		Callum Airlie	Sailing
		Jordan Duckitt	Swimming
		Cameron MacRitchie	Rowing
2014 Winter	Sochi	Irina Rodnina	Figure skating	Rodnina won three successive Olympic gold medals in Figure Skating pairs in 1972, 1976 and 1980. Tretiak was a former goaltender for the Soviet Union's national ice hockey team and contributed to the team winning three gold medals—in 1972, 1976 and 1984—as well as a silver in 1980.	[38]
		Vladislav Tretiak	Ice hockey
2016 Summer	Rio de Janeiro	Vanderlei de Lima (indoor cauldron)	Athletics	Winner of the bronze medal in the marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics. De Lima was the first Latin American awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal after he was deliberately interrupted during that event. A second, outdoor cauldron was lit in front of Candelaria Church by 14-year-old Jorge Gomes, who is part of a sports project in Rio de Janeiro.	[39][40]
		Jorge Gomes (outdoor cauldron)

Youth Olympics

Games	Location	Lighter	Sport	Note	Ref
2010 Summer Youth	Singapore	Darren Choy	Sailing	A sailor of Singapore who participated in the games.
2012 Winter Youth	Innsbruck	Egon Zimmermann	Alpine skiing	Both Zimmerman and Klammer won the gold in the downhill event in 1964 and 1976 respectively, both years when Austria previously hosted the Adult Winter games.
		Franz Klammer
2014 Summer Youth	Nanjing	Chen Ruolin	Diving	Winner of back-to-back gold medals in diving in 2008 and 2012, in the 10 m and the 10 m synchronized. She would also win a gold medal in 2016.
2016 Winter Youth	Lillehammer	Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway	Non-Athlete	Elder child of Crown Prince Haakon, who previously lit the cauldron in the 1994 Adult Winter games.	[41]

See also

• Olympic Flame
• List of Olympic torch relays

References

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36. Holton, Kate; Maidment, Neil (28 July 2012). "Seven teenagers light Games' cauldron". Reuters. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
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