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November 19, 2001
Olympic torch begins journey to Salt Lake City for 2002 Winter Games
By Lisa Orkin
Associated Press
ANCIENT OLYMPIA,

AP/Dimitri Messinis

Flame presented for Salt Lake Games.

Greece (AP) - The flame that will burn at the 2002 Winter Games began its long journey to Salt Lake City on Monday after a ceremony held among the ruins where the Olympics were born.
     Cloudy skies and sporadic showers prevented the flame from being lighted during the ceremony. The flame is ignited in a concave mirror by the sun's rays in the mountains around the Olympics' ancient birthplace. The ceremony is set amid the temples of Hera and Zeus, the main gods once honored at this sanctuary.
     ``The fire of the Olympians inspires us, lifts us. These athletes ignite a fire within those who experience the inevitable Olympic moments of the Olympic Games,'' Mitt Romney, head of the Salt Lake City organizers, said after the flame lighting ceremony. ``It will light our way.''
     Romney was accompanied by Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, United States Olympic Committee President Sandy Baldwin and her Greek counterpart, Lambis Nikolaou.
     ``Its a moment we have long waited for,

AP/Dimitri Messinis

Lighting of the torch

the beginning of a long trail to Salt Lake City,'' Leavitt said.
     During the ceremony, Greek actress Thalia Prokopiou, in her role as high priestess, used a flame burning in a clay urn to officiate at the ceremony. The flame had been lighted in the mirror on Friday and Saturday in the presence of Salt Lake City officials.
     Greek officials worried about bad weather did not even try to use a torch to light the flame in the mirror. The sun briefly shone through the clouds shortly before the ceremony, but it was raining when the relay began.
     It was the third Games in a row that the torch has failed to light during the official ceremony. Clouds prevented the torch lighting for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.
     Prokopiou used the jar to light the Salt Lake City torch in another ceremony at a nearby grove dedicated to Pierre de Coubertin, the French baron who revived the Olympics more than 100 years ago. The first torch was carried by Lefteris Fafalis, a Greek cross-country skier.
     Greek runners will relay the torch to a ski center near the ancient ruins of Delphi before it is taken to Athens on Tuesday. It will burn in the all-marble Panathenian stadium, site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, until it leaves for Atlanta on Dec. 3.
     The United States relay will start Dec. 4 in Atlanta and will follow a 65-day, 46-state course, arriving in Salt Lake City on Feb. 8. The only states the Olympic torch will not visit are Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii.
     ``I think the Olympics take on an even bigger significance because its truly the greatest peacetime event in the whole world,'' Baldwin said. ``The ceremony today was a symbol of that great peaceful event and we are going to have wonderful games. They will be the most beautiful Winter Games ever.''
     The Olympic Games were held in Ancient Olympia from 776 B.C. to 394, when the Roman Emperor Theodosius abolished them after Christianity took root and he deemed the games pagan.
     Nikolaou said the flame will convey a message of peace throughout its journey.
     ``At a time when humanity is shaken by tragic events, we hope that this precise message conveyed by the Olympic Flame, may find staunch supporters during its long journey,'' said Nikolaou.
     He also announced that 17 foreign ministers, including those of Israel and Palestine, had signed a declaration in support of the Olympic Truce. The Olympic Truce is aimed at reviving a tradition whereby warring parties suspended their conflicts during the ancient Olympic Games in Greece.
     The initiative is being promoted by Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who drafted the declaration and signed it with Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem on Nov. 8. He hopes to gather as many signatures as possible in order to implement a truce during the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
     ``Because of the tragic events of Sept. 11, we see this as the first time that the world has come together to heal ... that fate has fallen upon Salt Lake City to be the place and we will be ready.'' Leavitt said.
     Romney said New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., struck by terrorists on Sept. 11, will be main stops for the torch ``in tribute to fallen citizens of the world, many redefining heroism for me and my countrymen.''
     ``We're finally there after years of anticipation. It's a true thrill to see it really beginning ... We will celebrate a unity with humanity and not just our own patriotism,'' Romney said.

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