Olympic Torch goes out in Kremlin

[Syt]

Not speaking figuratively.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24421957

Putin launches Olympic torch relay for Sochi Games

Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken part in a ceremony in Moscow to launch the torch relay for next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The torch will go on a 123-day journey covering some 65,000km (40,000 miles) before the Games start in the Black Sea resort on 7 February.

The torch's journey will include a trip into space.

But the relay got off to a rocky start when the flame briefly went out during the loop through the Kremlin.

A security guard had to re-light it with a cigarette lighter.

Mr Putin said the Games would show Russia's "respect for equality and diversity".

The run-up to the Games has so far been marred by controversy over a new Russian law that restricts the spread of information about homosexuality, as well as allegations by rights groups that authorities have rounded up migrant workers who helped build the Games venues in Sochi.

'The way we love it'

The Olympic flame had been flown in from Greece after being lit last Sunday at the birthplace of the ancient Games.


The sun's rays were used to light the Olympic flame during a ceremony last Sunday in Greece
Hoisting the flame in Moscow, Mr Putin declared in a ceremony shown live on television that "our shared dream is becoming reality".

He said the Games would show "respect for equality and diversity - ideals that are so intertwined with the ideals of the Olympic movement itself".

Mr Putin said the relay would show off Russia "the way that it is and the way we love it".

"Today is a joyous and momentous day," he said. "The Olympic flame - the symbol of the planet's main sports event, the symbol of peace and friendship - has arrived in Russia, and in a few minutes it will be on its way around our huge country."

On its journey the flame will:

- Travel to the North Pole on an atomic-powered icebreaker
- Ascend Europe's highest peak, Mt Elbrus
- Be taken to the depths of Lake Baikal in Siberia
- Be taken on a spacewalk (unlit) at the International Space Station.

[Brazen]

Got a light, mate?

[Agelastus]

The Gods of Olympus are angry! They will not let their sacred flame be profaned by foul Colchians! Let the kin of Medea beware!

[Syt]

It kinda breaks the illusion that the same flame gets carried to all kinds of places all over the world (and now IN SPAAAACE!). I'm pretty sure that it's gone out before and just as unceremoniously re-ignited, but the idea was cool.

EDIT: Wiki has info on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_torch#Reigniting_the_flame

It is not uncommon for the Olympic flame to be accidentally or deliberately extinguished during the course of the relay, and on at least one occasion the cauldron itself has gone out during the Games. To guard against this eventuality, multiple copies of the flame are transported with the relay or maintained in backup locations. When a torch goes out, it is re-lit (or another torch is lit) from one of the backup sources. Thus, the fires contained in the torches and Olympic cauldrons all trace a common lineage back to the same Olympia lighting ceremony. One of the more memorable extinguishings occurred at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Canada. After a rainstorm doused the Olympic flame a few days after the games had opened, an official re-lit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.[9] At the 2004 Summer Olympics, when the Olympic flame came to the Panathinaiko Stadium to start the global torch relay, the night was very windy and the torch, lit by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, blew out due to the wind, but was re-lit from the backup flame taken from the original ceremonial flame at Olympia. In 2008 the Olympic torch was extinguished at least two times by Chinese officials (five times according to French police[27]) so that it could be transported in a bus amid protests while it was being paraded through Paris.[28][29] This eventually led to the cancellation of the relay's last leg in the city.[30] The flame itself, however, remained preserved in the back-up lantern used to keep it overnight and on airplanes, and the torch was relit using this. The currently designed torch has a safeguard built into it. There are two flames inside the torch. There is a highly visible (yellow) portion which burns cooler and is more prone to extinguish in wind and rain, but there is also a smaller hotter (blue) flame akin to a pilot light hidden inside the torch which is protected from wind and rain and is capable of relighting the cooler more visible portion if it is extinguished. The fuel inside the torch lasts approximately 15 minutes before the flame is exhausted and needs to be relit. Several backup flames are taken along the ceremonial journey in case the flame is extinguished.[31]

[DGuller]

Bad times for all flaming things in Russia. 

[crazy canuck]

Bad times for all flaming things in Russia.