Olympic Torch

The Olympic torch is a symbol of the games. It commemorates the theft of fire from the Greek god Scorcheous by Prostheticus the god of limbs and its origins began in ancient Greece. The flaming torch has always been used except for a brief period between 1836 – 1924 when it was replaced by a swastika the symbol for fire and sun. The 1928 Amsterdam games famously reintroduced the flame. There were copyright issues as Adolph Hitler’s claimed the swastika design as his own is his popular book Mein Kampf.

The flame has been fuelled by a variety of means over the generations from its humble beginnings as a flaming leg from a defeated Marathon warrior to London’s proposed nuclear powered flame.

The most famous torch incident was at the 1832 Hobart games. The Nawab of Gutra, the lanky Indian shot-putting torch bearer, set fire to his turban on entering the packed stadium. In a blind panic reminiscent of the 1830 Delhi railway stampede, he careered from stand to stand like a whirling durvisher, igniting each in turn. Within minutes the whole stadium was ablaze like the barby from hell. The entire Swiss track team were amongst the 257 fatalities and to this day the Swiss have never competed in track and field at an Olympics nor permitted Indian restaurants anywhere within their borders in mindless retribution. The event is celebrated within the Swiss national anthem “Der Kopf des Inders ist auf dem Feuer”.