The Olympic flame.....what's all that about?????

[slowmotion]

I just don't get it. I have failed to be whipped up into a state of hysteria by it. It's a flame. It isn't some kind of holy relic or a few billion in cash, so why the need for all the security? Anyway, who cares if it goes out? You can buy a 20p BIC lighter almost anywhere to re-light it these days. I really don't understand at all.

Can somebody explain it?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

That's the burning issue a lot of us on here have been wondering too!

 

[PaulB]

It's a right shoad of light. We had a major bike race here in Colne on Wednesday night and someone thought it'd bring some cachet to the event if they had a young girl in an official Olympics tracksuit run round with an Olympic torch. Cue mass yawning and total disinterest and the girl and her family wondering why she wasn't regarded as the main course. Because people have more sense, dear.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

God your a bunch of mizzos
I went to see it pass through Rochdale , and it was a great day , loads of things for the kids to do , performances on a stage and just a really good carnival atmosphere.
Yes the torch came through and was all very nice and all , but it was the fun day of everyone out having a good time that was the main thing.

 

[asterix]

So why bother with a torch? Just go out and have a good time anyway! The image that the torch conjures up for me is that kid on his bike being dragged off in front of traffic because he got into the security bubble. No torch, no bubble, no trouble.

 

[Andy_R]

No Olympics, no torch, no bubble, no trouble, no tax havens for maccydees and co, no zil lanes, no paying out of the nose to see events being held on public highways. It's all corporate w@nk.

 

[snorri]

The comparison betweeen the Limpic relay and the Real Relay events are quite interesting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18800162

Link originally posted on here by User13710

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

If I had known about the Real Relay then I'd have gone out to see it passing, but, I didn't, so I missed it. I wish them all the best of luck with it, but I do have to wonder how close they will get to the stadium at the end.

 

[Ajay]

I understand that it was the Nazis who introduced the torch relay for their 1936 Berlin games........

 

[rikki]

I understand that it was the Nazis who introduced the torch relay for their 1936 Berlin games........

According to wiki

The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Greece to the Olympic venue began in 1936. Carl Diem devised the idea of the torch relay for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin that was organized by the Nazis under the guidance of Joseph Goebbels. Krupp armaments company produced the torches in wood and metal, inspired by an olive leaf. The Olympic Flame was lit by a concave mirror in Olympia, Greece and transported over 3,187 kilometres by 3,331 runners in twelve days and eleven nights from Greece to Berlin. Leni Riefenstahl later staged the torch relay for the 1938 film Olympia. The film was part of the Nazi propaganda machine’s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitler’s regime. Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.[6] There were minor protests in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia on the way, which were suppressed by the local security forces.

Nuff said really

 

[Norm]

I must admit that the whole thing lost its sheen when I realised that it wasn't 'a torch' relay but 'an 8,000 torch relay'. So, it's not a torch relay at all, but a flame relay.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I find it a painful reminder of the 12 billion that has gone up in flames to stage a sports contest that could have been put on at a fraction of the cost if it was actually about sport and not a vehicle to promote the self interests of politicians and celebrity luvvies, along with lining the pockets of those who have enough money already.

I shall ignore the whole pile of shite with the exception of the road race, which I'd watch whether it was an Olympic event or not.

 

[rich p]

I thought they must have gone at Steve Ovett pace to get from Brighton to Hastings the other day but it turns out it goes in a car sometimes. Complete load of cobblers.

 

[derrick]

The whole thing is a farce, enough said.

 

[numbnuts]

I find it a painful reminder of the 12 billion that has gone up in flames to stage a sports contest that could have been put on at a fraction of the cost if it was actually about sport and not a vehicle to promote the self interests of politicians and celebrity luvvies, along with lining the pockets of those who have enough money already.

I shall ignore the whole pile of shite with the exception of the road race, which I'd watch whether it was an Olympic event or not.

Well said