The history of the Olympic flame dates back to Ancient Greece. This tradition reminded people of According to legend, Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to people. How did the modern history of the Olympic flame begin? More on this later in the article.
When did they start lighting the fire?
In which city did the tradition of Ancient Greece continue? The modern history of the Olympic flame began in Amsterdam in 1928. Before the games in Berlin, in 1936, the first Relay Race was held. The author of the idea was the Torch Relay Rite, which at that time perfectly suited the ideological doctrine of the fascists. He embodied several symbols and ideas at once. The design of the torch was invented by Walter Lemke. A total of 3840 pieces were produced. The torch was 27 centimeters long and weighed 450 grams. It was made of stainless steel. A total of 3,331 runners took part in the Relay. At the opening ceremony of the games in Berlin, the Olympic flame was lit by Fritz Schilgen. Over the next few years, no international competitions were held. The reason was World War 2, started by Hitler.
The history of the Olympic flame has continued since 1948 - then the next games took place. London became the host of the competition. Two versions of torches were produced. The first one was for the Relay Race. It was made of aluminum and contained fuel pellets. The second option was intended for the final stage at the stadium. It was made of stainless steel, and magnesium burned inside it. This made it possible to see the burning fire even in bright daylight. The first Winter Games Relay began in the Norwegian town of Morgedal. This place was very popular among slalomists and ski jumpers. It must be said that in Norway there has long been a tradition of skiing at night with a torch in hand. Skiers decided to bring the symbol of the International Games to Oslo. For these competitions, 95 torches were made, each with a handle 23 centimeters long. The bowl depicted an arrow that connected Oslo and Morgedal.
Helsinki, Cortina, Melbourne
The Finns turned out to be the most economical. A total of 22 torches were produced for the Helsinki Olympics. They were supplied (1600 pieces in total), each was enough for about 20 minutes of burning. In this regard, they had to be changed relatively often. The symbol of the games was made in the form of a bowl mounted on a birch handle. The next games took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, in northern Italy. Part of the Torch Relay was then held on roller skates. Probably one of the prototypes of the design of the symbol of the games in Australia was the version created for the London competition. Simultaneously with the Australian Olympics, equestrian competitions were held in Stockholm In this regard, the symbol of the games went to two countries at once: Sweden and Australia.
Squaw Valley, Rome, Tokyo
The organization of the closing and opening ceremonies of the 1960 International Games in California was entrusted to Disney. The design of the competition symbol combined elements of the Melbourne and London torches. The same year the games took place in Rome. The design of the games symbol was inspired by ancient sculptures. The Olympic flame was transported to Tokyo by land, sea and air. In Japan itself, the flame was divided, it was carried in 4 directions and joined into one whole at the end of the Relay.
Grenoble, Mexico City, Sapporo
The Olympic torch route through France was filled with adventure. Thus, the symbol of the games had to be literally crawled across the Puy de Sancy mountain pass due to a snow storm. A swimmer carried the torch at arm's length through the port of Marseille. The Relay Games in Mexico City is considered the most traumatic. All three hundred torches looked like whisks used to beat eggs. At the opening ceremony of the competition, the cup with the flame was lit for the first time by a woman. There was fuel inside the torches, which turned out to be highly flammable. During the Relay, several runners suffered burns. During the games in Sapporo, the length of the Relay was more than five thousand kilometers, and more than 16 thousand people participated in it. The height of the torch was 70.5 cm. Just like before the competition in Tokyo, this time the flame was divided and carried in different directions so that the torch could be greeted by as many people as possible.
Munich, Innsbruck, Montreal
The Munich Games torch was made of stainless steel. It has passed "endurance" tests in a variety of weather conditions other than extreme hot weather. When, on the way to Germany from Greece, the air temperature rose to 46 degrees, a sealed torch was used. The symbol of the games in Innsbruck became a “relative” of the Munich one. Like the previous one, it was made in the form of a sword, which was decorated at the top. At the opening ceremony, two bowls were lit at once - as a sign that the competition was being held here for the second time. The “cosmic” transfer of flame took place in honor of the opening of the games in Montreal. At these competitions, special attention was paid to how the fire would look on TV screens. To enhance the effect, it was placed in a black square mounted on a red handle. Until this moment, the history of the Olympic flame had never known such a transfer of flame. In the form of a laser beam, with the help of a satellite, it was transferred from continent to continent: to Ottawa from Athens. In Canada, the cup was lit in the traditional way.
Lake Placid, Moscow, Sarajevo
The relay race in honor of the games in the USA began where the first settlements were founded by the British. The number of participants in the race was small, and they all represented US states. In total, 26 women and 26 men fled. The competition symbol did not feature any new design. In Moscow, the torch again takes on an unusual shape with a gold top and a gold decorative detail on the handle with the emblem of the games. Before the competition, the production of the symbol was ordered from a fairly large Japanese company. But after Soviet officials saw the result, they were extremely disappointed. The Japanese, of course, apologized; moreover, they paid a fine to Moscow. Afterwards, production was entrusted to the Leningrad representative office of the Ministry of Aviation Industry. The torch for games in Moscow eventually became quite convenient. Its length was 550 mm and its weight was 900 grams. It was made of aluminum and steel, with a gas nylon cylinder built inside.
Los Angeles, Calgary, Seoul
The 1984 Olympics in the USA took place with loud scandals. Firstly, the organizers offered athletes to run their stages for 3 thousand dollars/km. Of course, this caused a wave of indignation among the founders of the competition - the Greeks. The torch was made of steel and brass, the handle was trimmed with leather. For the first time, the competition slogan was engraved on the symbol of the Calgary Games. The torch itself was relatively heavy, weighing about 1.7 kg. It was made in the form of a tower - a landmark of Calgary. Pictograms were laser-cut on the handle to represent winter sports. A torch made of copper, leather and plastic was prepared for the games in Seoul. Its design was similar to its Canadian predecessor. A distinctive feature of the symbol of the games in Seoul was a truly Korean engraving: two dragons that symbolized the harmony of East and West.
Albertville, Barcelona, Lillehammer
The games in France (in Albertville) marked the beginning of an era of extravagant designs for the competition symbol. Philippe Starck, who became famous for his furniture, was involved in creating the shape of the torch. The torch of the games in Barcelona was radically different from all previous ones. The design of the symbol was created by Andre Ricard. According to the author's idea, the torch was supposed to express a “Latin” character. The cup at the opening ceremony was lit by an archer who shot an arrow directly into its center. A ski jumper carried the torch into the Lillehammer stadium, holding it in flight at arm's length. As before the competition in Oslo, the flame was lit not in Greece, but in Mordegal. But the Greeks protested, and the fire was brought to Lillehammer from Greece. He was entrusted to the ski jumper.
Games in Sochi 2014
The model of the torch, its concept and design were invented. Initially, polycarbonate and titanium were supposed to be the materials for its manufacture. However, aluminum was used in production. This torch was one of the heaviest ever. Its weight was more than one and a half kilograms (the photo of the Olympic flame in Sochi is presented above). The height of the “feather” is 95 centimeters, at its widest point the width is 14.5 cm, and the thickness is 5.4 centimeters. This is a brief history of the Olympic flame. For children living in Russia, the games in Sochi became a truly significant event. The symbolism of the competition has become loved by adults as well.
The culmination of the opening ceremony of the Games is the arrival of the Olympic flame at the stadium.
At the Olympic Games of our time, the ceremonial flame was first lit in 1936 at the XI Olympic Games. But the tradition of consecrating the Olympics with fire existed back in Ancient Greece. Now the Olympic rules strictly define this ritual.
In Olympia, where the ancient Games took place, the fire is lit from the sun using a lens by girls dressed in antique costumes. Many spectators, journalists, photo and film reporters gather for this ceremony. The torch is passed to the young man, who, accompanied by two runners, heads towards the capital of Greece - the city of Athens. This is how the Olympic torch relay begins. To avoid accidents, two miner's lamps with fire are carried next to the torch, which are lit from the torch. Thousands of people meet the runners along the entire route, and rallies are organized.
It happened that the torch was delivered not only by runners, but also by cars, planes, and ships. So, in 1956, the fire brought by runners to the Acropolis of Athens was then loaded into a plane in miners' lamps, which took it to Australia. Here the torch was lit again, and 270 Australian runners, taking turns, carried it to Melbourne. And the fire arrived in the capital of the XIX Games - Mexico City - by ship.
The procedure for delivering the flame to the XXI Olympic Games was a reflection of technological progress. Lighted in Olympia and following the traditional path through Greece, it was then “transferred” to Canada in a matter of moments with the help of a laser and an artificial Earth satellite. The fire was taken up by runners and taken to Montreal.
Completing the torch relay - bringing the Olympic flame into the stadium and lighting the fire in the bowl - is especially honorable. This honor is most often given to one of the best athletes in the country hosting the Olympic Games. For example, in 1952, the fire was lit in Helsinki by the famous Finnish runner, 55-year-old Paavo Nurmi. In Melbourne, this right was given to Ronald Clark, who later became an outstanding long-distance runner, then still a junior.
But there were exceptions. At the XVIII Olympic Games in Tokyo, the most honorable role was entrusted to the 19-year-old boy Ishinori Sakai, who was born in the vicinity of Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bombing.
In Mexico City, the honor of lighting the fire was given to a woman for the first time - Enriqueta Basilio Sotelo. In Montreal, at the last leg of the relay, the torch was carried by Montreal boy Steve Prefontaine and Toronto girl Sandra Henderson, symbolizing the unity of Canadians who speak French and English. By the way, Sandra and Steve, having met a few days before the big day, then became friends and later got married.
According to tradition, the flame of the XXII Olympic Games in Moscow was lit in Olympia. Here he began his thirty-day, 4,970-kilometer journey through the territory of four countries - through the cities and villages of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and the USSR. Four more Olympic torches were lit in Moscow and headed to Tallinn, where the sailing regatta took place, and to Leningrad, Kyiv and Minsk, the cities that hosted football tournaments. Three-time Olympic champion athlete Viktor Sanaev carried the torch to the Central Olympic Stadium named after V.I. Lenin for the opening ceremony of the Games, and here the baton was taken over by Olympic champion basketball player Sergei Belov, who lit the fire in the bowl.
The torch relay that preceded the XXIII Olympic Games-84 in Los Angeles turned out to be unprecedented, where every kilometer of the route was sold wholesale and retail in the full sense of the word. As a result, the sacred torch - a symbol of peace, the strength of the human spirit, honesty, and the nobility of wrestling - was in the hands of people far from sports and Olympic ideals.
76-year-old Song Ki Chun ran into the Olympic Stadium in Seoul with a torch; at the XI Games of 1936 in Berlin, this veteran was the winner of the marathon. Three young athletes - Sung Mak Chun, Won Tak Kim and Mi Chun Sun - were entrusted with lighting the flame in the bowl.
The lighting of the fire has also become a tradition at the opening of the Winter Olympic Games. At the VI White Olympiad in Oslo, it was brought from the small town of Morgedal in northern Norway. The torch was lit from the fireplace in the house where the founder of modern skiing, Sondre Nordheim, lived. Here the fire began its journey and was delivered to the next Winter Olympic Games - in Cortina d'Ampezzo and Squaw Valley. And later the Winter Olympics began to “receive” the fire from Olympia.
In 1952, in Oslo, the honor of carrying the torch at the last stage was given to Egil Nansen, the grandson of the famous polar explorer. In Cortina d'Ampezzo, the torch relay was completed by the famous Italian speed skater Guido Caroli, in Grenoble by the famous French figure skater Alain Calmat, at the XII Winter Olympics in Innsbruck by Josef Feistmeitl, the Olympic and world champion in luge, and Christl Haas, who has the same titles in alpine skiing. sports
The right to light the flame of the XIII Winter Games of 1980 was awarded by secret vote to 44-year-old psychiatrist C. M. Kerr, a great sports fan.
More than 5 thousand kilometers, through 197 cities and villages of Yugoslavia - this was the route of the Olympic torch relay of the XIV Games in Sarajevo. At the last stage, the torch was carried by 19-year-old figure skater from Zagreb Sandra Dubravcic.
The Olympic flame of the XV Winter Games in the Canadian city of Calgary traveled 18 thousand kilometers. In the penultimate stage, the torch was entrusted to Rick Hansen. This disabled enthusiast made an extraordinary trip around the world in a wheelchair, during which he raised $21 million and donated it to the development of sports among the disabled. Then speed skater Katie Priestner and alpine skier Ken Reed carried the fire down the track. And it was lit by 12-year-old seventh-grader from Calgary, Robin Perry.
Since the XI Olympic Games in 1936, the Olympic flame has been lit. The torch, which is delivered to the Olympic stadium, is lit in the small Greek town of Olympia - the place where the ancient Olympic Games were held for 1170 years - from 776 BC to 394 AD.
The fire is lit using a lens from the sun's rays. Then the torch with the Olympic flame is delivered by relay to the city hosting the next games. The flame is carried by runners from those countries through which the relay route passes. Where the torch cannot be carried by runners, it is delivered by one of the modes of transport (the fire is usually stored in a miner's lamp).
At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, a runner with a torch runs along the stadium track and lights a fire in a bowl installed on the podium. This fire burns continuously during all Games.
At the last stage, the Olympic torch was carried and the Olympic flame was lit:
at the XV Games in 1952 - the famous Finnish runner, winner of twelve Olympic medals, Paavo Nurmi;
at the XVI Games of 1956 - Australian runner Ron Clark, who later became an outstanding runner, repeatedly setting world records in long-distance running;
at the XVII Games in 1960 - the young Italian runner Peris;
at the XVIII Games of 1964 - the young Japanese sprinter Yoshinori Sakai, born in the vicinity of Hiroshima on the day of the American atomic attack in 1945;
at the XIX Games of 1968, the flame was lit for the first time by a woman - Mexican runner Norme Enriquete Basilio Sotelo;
at the XX Games in 1972 - 18-year-old West German athlete Gunter Zahn.
At the Winter Olympic Games: at the VI Games of 1952 - the grandson of the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen - Norwegian skier Egil Nansen;
at the VII Games of 1956 - the famous Italian speed skater Guido Carolli;
at the VIII Games of 1960 - champion of the VI Winter Olympic Games, American speed skater Kenneth Henry;
at the IX Games in 1964 - world champion in slalom, Austrian I. Rieder;
at the X Games of 1968 - the famous French figure skater Alain Calmat;
at the XI Games of 1972 - Japanese athlete Hideki Takada.
Why did the fire go out? 10 amazing stories about the Olympic torch
Before arriving in Russia, the Olympic flame went out on the way to Red Square. Alexey Avdokhin explains why this force majeure should not be surprising.
Has gone out, is going out and will go out
The Olympic flame, lit by the sun's rays in Ancient Olympia, is no stranger to going out. In '76, for example, the fire went out in the bowl of the Olympic stadium in Montreal right during the Games - a prolonged downpour caused trouble. Two years ago in London, the torch was also damaged by water - the captain of the youth rafting team did not protect it during the descent along the route, and the Beijing Olympics flame went out completely on the way to the goal more than a dozen times - but then, they say, Chinese torch manufacturers screwed up .
How heroes become famous
About 60-year-old Shavarsh Karapetyan, if on Sunday the torch had gone out not in his hands, but in other hands (for example, Dima Bilan), only a few would probably have known. About the fact that nearly forty years ago he, a young but already outstanding submarine swimmer, together with his younger brother, saved two dozen people from a trolleybus that fell into Lake Yerevan.
“I knew for sure that, despite all my training, I would only be able to do a certain number of dives. But I understood that at that moment in this place no one could do what I did. All my sports training corresponded to this moment, and there was nothing to wait for,” - in the 12-degree September water, Karapetyan caught pneumonia, complicated by blood poisoning after cuts on the windows of that trolleybus, but even after that he was able to set a world record in the 400-meter scuba diving.
But what made Karapetyan truly famous were neither the dozens of lives saved, nor almost a dozen world records, nor three dozen victories at the World and European Championships - many learned about all this only after the Olympic flame suddenly went out over his head.
Did the FSO employee know about the ancient tradition of getting fire from the Sun?
It seems like something went wrong. Realizing this obvious fact and reacting to Karapetyan’s meaningful gestures, the cool-blooded security officer supported with all his might the Olympic torch relay that had just begun.
It is not known whether the lighter is part of the basic FSO equipment or whether it was the personal initiative of an unknown hero, but the process of restoring the lost flame looked very colorful. Although, for greater authenticity, the guard, of course, should have made fire using a parabolic mirror that focuses the sun's rays. This is the tradition.
The Greek Olympic flame is still in Russia
However, already at the next stage of the relay the fire from Ancient Olympia was burning in the torch, Chernyshenko reassured. Bringing spare lamps with fire from Greece - this practice has actually been adopted for quite a long time precisely for such force majeure. Moreover, it was in such a lamp that the Olympic flame came to Russia from Greece - you don’t admit that for more than three hours on a special flight from Athens to Moscow, flames were knocked out of the torch bowl.
Of course, it’s up to you to check whether the fire found its roots at the next stage or whether no one will do it later, but traditions require the lighting of the Olympic flame. After all, even in the Olympic Charter there is a strict footnote: “The Olympic flame is the fire lit at Olympia under the auspices of the IOC.”
As you can see, it is still under the auspices of the IOC, and not the FSO.
Alexander Ovechkin and his torch. Photo: /Dimitri Messinis/Pool
Engineering solution of the “Sochi” torch
In fact, the design of the Olympic torch is designed so that neither heavy rain, nor gusty winds, nor frost can extinguish it. “It can go out only by the will of man,” the creator of the Russian version of the torch, Andrei Vodyanik, promised in an interview with Izvestia. – It is based on a unique double combustion system, based on the “Russian nesting doll” principle. A fire burns within, from which the outer fire ignites. If the external one suddenly goes out due to a gust of wind or rain, it will immediately light up again from the internal flame.”
Moreover, prototypes of the torches were tested in the laboratory of the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant. Whatever they did with them - they filled them with water, cooled them, simulated thin air, a mini-hurricane, and even a torchbearer falling into a snowdrift. Unless they checked it in a vacuum. Believe it or not, they continued to burn under any circumstances.
Taste and color
The designers tried to make the torch in the shape of a firebird's feather. In addition to the gas capsule, Olympic emblems are inlaid into its aluminum body, and the handle and central decorative insert are cast from a transparent polymer of high strength and transparency. The inside of the parts is coated with ultra-glossy dyes with a transparent surface in deep colors: red or sky blue, and the outside is silver.
In total, the developers have created three modifications of the torch - mountain (continues to burn when there is a severe lack of oxygen), underwater (for passing the baton at the bottom of Lake Baikal) and standard.
Technical characteristics of the Olympic torch:
Total weight – 1.8 kg, height – 95 centimeters, width at the widest point – 0.145 m, thickness – 54 mm.
15 thousand apiece
The Olympic relay is not like an athletics relay; here it is customary not to pass the torch like a baton, but to light one from the other. Therefore, the number of torches needed should at least approximately coincide with the number of torchbearers, of whom there were more than 14 thousand people.
Approximately the same number of torches were purchased. 207 million rubles were spent on this, which comes out to about 15 thousand rubles apiece. For such a rare souvenir, the price seems to be tolerable.
We want all records...
A relay race of 14 thousand people - such a colossal scale has never been seen at any Olympics. As never before, the torch relay covered so many settlements - 2900, lasted so long - 123 days and did not cover such a gigantic distance - more than 65,000 km.
The torchbearer's lot is difficult
True, not everyone agreed to such a difficult mission - to run several hundred meters with the Olympic torch.
“I read the contract - it was enslaving, I was simply amazed, to be honest. There are some 6 documents attached, 15 pages,” Konstantin Remchukov. – This is a complete deprivation of my rights. The organizers prohibit me from commenting on this event; without any specific explanation, I could be deprived of the right to carry the torch at any time.
The point at which I will carry the torch is determined by the organizers - it could be Kamchatka, it could be somewhere else, right? But the main thing is that the organizers are not responsible for my personal belongings that went missing during the relay. At the same time, it describes how I should be dressed. I can't have anything else, right? I can’t get my purse full of documents.”
How it was in the USSR
The fate of the Olympic torch in the USSR was dealt with by the department of the 1980 Olympic Torch Relay Directorate, specially created in 1976. The development was entrusted to the Leningrad Machine-Building Plant named after. Klimov, and the company’s specialists were given only a month to do this. A group of engineers led by Boris Tuchin met the deadline, thereby setting a kind of record. In total, the plant produced 6,200 torches with gold-colored tops and handles for the Olympics. Cylinders with liquefied gas were placed inside the torches, as well as special cords soaked in olive oil, which gave the flame a pink tint.
The Olympic flame is one of the symbols of the Olympic Games. It lights up with the beginning of the Games and goes out with their end.
The tradition goes back deeply to Ancient Greece, when the Olympic flame served as a reminder of the feat of the titan Prometheus, who, according to legend, stole the fire from Zeus and gave it to people.
In modern history, the idea of lighting the Olympic flame from the sun's rays at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia was first expressed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1912. The ancient tradition was revived only at the 1928 Summer Games in Amsterdam, when the Olympic flame blazed over the main stadium of the Olympics for the first time in the history of modern Olympism in a specially designed bowl (pictured).
Olympic torch relay was first held before the opening of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. It is believed that the author of the idea was professor and sports functionary Carl Diem. Under Hitler, he was appointed general secretary of the preparatory committee for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. On one of the antique vases he discovered a plot depicting ancient Greek athletes with torches in their hands. Dim took this idea as a basis when implementing his project. But what they forget or keep silent about is that he received a strong recommendation on this matter from the “Imperial Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda,” which was known, among other things, for organizing torchlight processions throughout Germany. According to the organizers, the fire was supposed to connect the Third Reich with Ancient Greece in the minds of the Germans. At the same time, especially for the Olympic torch relay, the Germans Walter Lemke and Peter Wolf Lemcke, Peter Wolf) designed first olympic torch.
The organizers of the 1952 Olympics in Oslo decided to hold Winter Olympic torch relay. However, it originated not in Olympia, but in a Norwegian town Morgedal (Morgedal). The source of the fire was the fireplace in the house-museum of ski popularizer Sandra Nordheim. The Norwegian idea to further extend this tradition to all winter games did not find support. Only two more times, before the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley and 1994 in Lillehammer, the Olympic torch relay started in Norway. Moreover, before the 1994 games, the Olympic flame for the international part of the relay was lit in Olympia.
Fire lighting ceremony at Olympia(on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula) is strict and time-tested. Female actresses, dressed in antique dresses, portray ancient Greek priestesses. The “High Priestess” on the ruins of the temple of the goddess Hera says a prayer to the gods Apollo and Zeus with a request to send the sacred Olympic flame to the earth and, bending her knee, brings the torch to the parabolic mirror that focuses the rays of the Sun.
The ritual of lighting the Olympic flame in Olympia on the ruins of the temple of the goddess Hera
For this ceremony, a special amphora is also made in the ancient Greek style, on the sides of which running Hellenic youths are depicted. After lighting the torch, the priestess approaches the amphora and lights a fire in it. Before passing the torch to the Olympic relay participants, the priestesses must perform a dance. And only after the completion of the dance, the fire of the torch of the first Olympic torchbearer is lit from the torch of the priestess, which opens the Olympic torch relay for them. This relay, or rather its Greek section, takes eight days and ends in Athens. There the Olympic flame is handed over to the organizers of the next Olympic Games.
Currently, news about the presentation of another high-tech torch with a bizarre shape or an impressive Olympic torch relay attracts the attention of millions of people on the planet, and the details of the ritual of lighting the Olympic flame in the stadium bowl are the main mystery of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
“Look at the torches from past Winter Olympics! Their appearance can be described with the words “kvadratish, praktish, gut.” Our task was to develop an absolutely outstanding design, with a sort of original Russian “twist”. But most importantly, it must be sincere. Not just dry and functional industrial design, but soulful!” – Vladimir Pirozhkov pronounces the last word with aspiration. Vladimir is the head of the industrial design and innovation center AstraRossa Design, where the appearance of the torch for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi was developed.
About seven years ago, Vladimir Pirozhkov could not even imagine that he would leave his sunny villa in Nice, return to Russia and take up winter torch building. A graduate of the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute, he almost hitchhiked out of the country in the early 1990s and ended up as an apprentice to the founder of biodesign, the legendary Luigi Colani. Then he successfully worked as an interior designer at Citroën, where he created the interiors of the C3, C3 Pluriel, C4 Coupe, C5 models and the C6 Lignage, specially tailored for French President Jacques Chirac.
Then he worked at the Toyota European Center in Nice, where he rose to the rank of head of the department that deals with “cars of the future.”
And in 2007, the then Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation German Gref visited the Toyota design center in Nice on an excursion, who invited the designer to return to his homeland. This is how the AstraRossa Design center was born, the debut of which was the project of the visual style of the SuperJet 100 aircraft.
“The task of designing the design of the torch for the Winter Olympics in Sochi fell on us out of the blue,” says Vladimir. – A couple of years ago, the organizing committee of the Olympic Games held a competition to develop the design of the Olympic torch. We submitted an application and, of course, hoped to get into the finals, otherwise what was the point of participating? But hope was cautious. Why? Look who designed the torches for at least two past Winter Olympics: Pininfarina (Turin, 2006) and Bombardier (Vancouver, 2010). Against the background of such giants of a planetary scale, our compact Russian company looked simply defiant, but we still submitted an application. A month later we received a call from the organizing committee.”
Appearance and ergonomics
According to Pirozhkov, there is not a single straight line in the design of the torch, all the lines are ornate, they are neither Western nor Eastern - they are ours. The body is made of cast aluminum. Inserts made of red polycarbonate, painted inside with bright yellow, create a feeling of inner glow. The color scheme represents the motto of our Olympics: “Ice and Fire.” And the design idea is based on an artifact that the heroes of Russian fairy tales so strive to obtain - the feather of the Firebird.
The ergonomics of the torch, says Vladimir Pirozhkov, raised many questions. “Unlike the torches of the Summer Olympic Games, the winter ones should be better protected from the vagaries of bad weather. Accordingly, they are more powerful and heavier, and this imposes additional restrictions on ergonomics. For example, the torch of the Vancouver Olympics weighs only 1.8 kg, but is uncomfortable in the hand - it dangles. And if you take Turin - for 2 kg, but perfectly balanced! We tried to move the center of gravity as close as possible to the torch handle and ultimately retained Canadian weight and Italian ergonomics.”
Let's digress a little from the topic and remember the torches of past Olympics:
The modern Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony is performed by eleven women portraying priestesses, during which one of them lights the fire using a parabolic mirror that focuses the rays of the Sun. Then this, but at different times other methods of transportation were used. In addition to the main torch, special lamps are also lit from the Olympic flame, designed to store the fire in case the main torch (or even the fire at the games themselves) goes out for one reason or another. There is at least one known case where the fire went out during the games (Montreal, 1976, during a rainstorm).
The tradition of lighting the Olympic flame existed in Ancient Greece during the ancient Olympic Games. The Olympic flame served as a reminder of the feat of the titan Prometheus, who, according to legend, stole fire from Zeus and gave it to people.
The tradition was revived in 1928 and continues to this day. During the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, the Olympic torch relay was held for the first time (an idea by Joseph Goebbels). More than 3,000 runners took part in delivering the torch from Olympia to Berlin. The flame was lit at the Winter Olympic Games in both 1936 and 1948, but the relay was first held in 1952 before the Winter Olympic Games in Oslo, and began not in Olympia, but in Morgendal.
So, olympic torches, let's take a closer look at some of them.
Torch of the 1972 Olympics in Munich (Germany)
The main design feature of the Games was the famous athlete pictograms, designed by Otl Eicher. The gas torch was made of stainless steel and was tested to withstand various weather conditions other than extreme heat. When the temperature reached 46 degrees Celsius on the way from Greece to Germany, a special sealed torch had to be used.
Torch of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow (USSR)
The fate of the Olympic torch in the USSR was dealt with by the department of the 1980 Olympic Torch Relay Directorate, specially created in 1976. A group of specialists had to decide what the shape of the torch and its internal structure would be. Initially, it was planned to entrust its production to the Japanese, but Soviet officials did not like the reed-shaped torch they proposed. As a result, the development was entrusted to the Leningrad Machine-Building Plant named after. Klimov, and the company’s specialists were given only a month to do this. A group of engineers led by Boris Tuchin met the deadline, thereby setting a kind of record. In total, the plant produced 6,200 torches with golden tops and handles for the Olympics. Cylinders with liquefied gas were placed inside the torches, as well as special cords soaked in olive oil, which gave the flame a pink tint.
Torch of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona (Spain)
The capital of the 1992 Summer Olympics was to be chosen in 1986 at the 91st session of the IOC. Among the contenders was Barcelona, whose delegation used an interesting move during the presentation. On the map of Europe, burning torches marked the capitals of past Olympics, but the Iberian Peninsula was drowning in darkness. The Spaniards' idea was appreciated, and Barcelona received the right to host the games. All that remained was to create a torch that would not be similar to the previous ones. Such a responsible task was entrusted to industrial designer Andre Ricard. His goal, as he himself formulated it, was to give the torch a “Latin character.” As a result, Rickard created one of the most original torches in the history of the Olympics. It was shaped like a long nail, the “head” of which became a fire bowl. The unusual torch was appreciated by residents of 652 settlements through which the Olympic torch relay passed.
Torch of the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer (Norway)
For the first time, the Winter and Summer Olympic Games are being held alternately every two years. This slim torch has been tested for stability in windy conditions. The fact is that it was carried into the Lillehammer stadium by a ski jumper, holding the torch in flight at arm's length. And again, as before the Oslo Olympics, the fire was lit not in Greece, but in Mordegal, Norway. This time the torch relay stretched over 12 thousand kilometers. But unexpectedly, the Greeks protested, calling on the organizers of the Norwegian Games to return to tradition. As a result, the fire from Greece was nevertheless delivered to the opening of the Games, and it was from it that the torch was lit, which was entrusted to the ski jumper.
Torch of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta (USA)
The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta took place during the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. And therefore, the developers of the design of the Olympic torch decided to give back to the ancient tradition. A team of specialists from Georgia Tech University worked on the internal structure, and designer Malcolm Greer was responsible for the external appearance. It was he who came up with the idea of making a torch in the form of a bundle of reeds. The number of aluminum stems was meant to symbolize the 26 Summer Olympics that have taken place since 1896. But several tubes melted, and the final version had 22 stems. Also, the shape of the torch referred to the straight lines of classical Greek architecture. The torch of the Atlanta Games became the longest in the history of all Olympics and the only one with a grip in the middle. The legendary Mohammed Ali was awarded the right to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Torch of the 1998 Olympics in Nagano (Japan)
The torch is made in the likeness of traditional Japanese Taimatsu torches, but with some modern elements. It was made entirely of aluminum and burned using propane - and was considered the most environmentally friendly of all made up to that time. The hexagonal shape of the top of the torch symbolizes the snowflake, and the silver color symbolizes winter. The honor of carrying the Olympic flame into Nagano Stadium fell to Briton Chris Moon, who lost an arm and a leg in Mozambique, where he was clearing anti-personnel mines. Moon ran through the stadium to a storm of applause, despite the fact that he has a prosthetic instead of one of his legs.
Sydney 2000 Olympic Torch (Australia)
When Sydney, Australia, won the right to host the Olympics at the 101st IOC session, many wondered how long the Olympic torch relay would be. As a result, its length was 17,000 km. The Olympic torch has been transported on foot, by train, by bicycle, by kayak, by ferry, by plane, on horseback, and even underwater. The last part of the journey, the scuba divers swam with a torch through the crevices of the Great Barrier Reef. Four years before the start of the games, the Australian Olympic Committee organized a tender among four dozen local design bureaus and ultimately chose Blue Sky Design. The design team drew inspiration from the Sydney Opera House, the Pacific Ocean and a hunting boomerang. As a result, the Sydney Olympics torch turned out to be multi-layered, with each layer representing a separate element: earth, water and fire.
Torch of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City (USA)
The torch's icicle design, made of silver and copper with a glass tip, is intended to illustrate the Salt Lake City Olympics motto: "Light the fire within." The flame seems to be breaking through the ice. Along with the athletes, relatives of those who died as a result of the tragic events of September 11 in New York took part in the relay.
Torch of the 2004 Olympics in Athens (Greece)
The Athens Olympic torch was presented to the public a year before the start of the games. Its creator was industrial designer Andreas Varotsos, who had previously been involved in the development of office furniture. The main materials from which the torch was made were olive wood and metal. The first was supposed to symbolize the ancient history of Greece, and the second - modernity. The Athens torch, whose shape resembled a twisted olive leaf, turned out to be very laconic and even modest, but this did not bother the representatives of the Greek Olympic Committee. What was worse was that the torch turned out to be technically imperfect: it was repeatedly blown out by the wind during the Olympic torch relay, and to top all the troubles, the flame went out right in the Temple of Hera at the moment of the ceremonial transfer of the Olympic torch to the president of the organizing committee of the Athens Games, Joanna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki.
Torch of the 2006 Olympics in Turin (Italy)
The famous Italian design firm Pininfarina, which works with such automotive giants as Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar, decided to try its hand at creating Olympic symbols. The shape of the torch resembles a ski, and the flames breaking through the holes create the illusion of a fireball. However, despite its elegant design, this torch was criticized by representatives of various Olympic committees for being too heavy. Many athletes did not feel too comfortable carrying an almost two-kilogram torch.
Torch of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (China)
A team of designers and technicians worked for almost a year to create the torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Such a responsible task was entrusted to the IT company Lenovo, a well-known computer manufacturer. The Beijing Games torch was made in the form of a scroll, because paper is considered one of the great inventions of China. The main colors of the torch were red, symbolizing the triumph of victory, and silver. And it was decided to decorate its upper part with a pattern of clouds, which is often found in paintings and interior elements in China. The 2008 Olympic torch became one of the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly in history and was even called the “Cloud of Hope”. It was made of an alloy of aluminum and magnesium, and propane was used as fuel, which does not pollute the atmosphere during combustion and does not harm the lungs of athletes.
Olympic torch 2010 in Vancouver (Canada)
This torch was designed by artists from the vehicle manufacturing company Bombardier and the Hudson's Bay Company. Its length is 94.5 cm and its weight is 1.6 kg. The shape of the torch resembles ski marks in the snow, as well as the Canadian landscape. The side combustion holes are carved in the shape of a maple leaf. The snow-white torch depicts the emblem of the Olympic Games in Vancouver - Inukshuk. Inukshuk is a pile of stones in the shape of a man with arms spread out to the sides. The indigenous people of the region, the Inuit, installed them as road signs.
Over the course of two years, dozens of engineers and designers developed and tested a far from simple torch design. It was necessary to create a special fuel (a mixture of propane and isobutane) that would burn at a low temperature. The special design of the air intake holes creates a flame in the form of a developing flag.
London 2012 Olympic Torch (UK)
Exactly 100 days before the start of the London Olympics, the torch of the upcoming Games was presented to the public. Its development was entrusted to residents of the British capital - designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. Before starting work, each of them received an 80-page description of requirements with images of all pre-existing models of Olympic torches. For the games in London, the designers came up with a triangular-shaped torch made of aluminum alloy. The choice of material managed to simultaneously ensure its lightness and strength, and the three sides symbolized not only the words of the Olympic motto “Faster, higher, stronger”, but also the third Olympics in London. In addition, the perforation applied to the torch turned out to be original: 8,000 round holes symbolize the number of torchbearers who took part in the Olympic torch relay.
Now let's get back to our 2014 torch.
Inner fire
“Firebird Feather” is just the outer shell. The combustible filling was developed by specialists from a large Russian defense enterprise - the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant, Krasmash. The combustion system consists of three main parts: a gas cylinder, a tap and a burner-evaporator.
Rocket engineers could use pure industrial propane, which burns well and has a fairly low boiling point, -42°C, which is important in the Russian winter. However, pure propane has an octane rating of 100, is explosive and cannot be used for safety reasons. Therefore, a mixture of propane and butane was chosen in a safe ratio of 80:20. With this liquefied mixture, a cylinder specially designed to fit the shape of the body, the pressure in which is 12 atm, is filled to half its volume.
60 g of gas is enough for approximately 8–10 minutes of combustion. Again, for safety reasons, gas is taken from the liquid fraction (the intake tube is lowered to the bottom of the cylinder). It would seem that it is more convenient to work with the gaseous fraction - almost constant pressure is maintained in the system, and the flame is very stable.
But if such a torch is sharply tilted or turned over, the liquid intake will “overwhelm” and, as a result, the combustion system will fail. Nevertheless, the torch of the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980 was made exactly like this! The fact is that then the torchbearers were professional athletes who were ordered
keep the torch strictly vertical, and they strictly followed this rule. By the way, out of more than 6,000 Moscow torches, only 36 went out, which, compared to other Olympics, is an excellent indicator.
With a clear flame
When the needle valve opens, gas flows through the pipeline through the first nozzle (a calibrated hole for supplying a strictly defined amount of fuel) into the evaporator tube, spirally wound on the burner body, where, when heated, it turns into a gaseous state. And then through another jet the gas bursts out with a clear flame.
But not too clear: the mixture must be over-enriched with flammable gas. In this case, carbon particles (simply put, soot) are formed in the flame, which glow yellow, making the fire powerful and clearly visible. However, it is important to maintain a balance: such a flame is less stable than a completely burning mixture. The burner itself may work beautifully, but the torch body severely restricts air flow.
If you make holes in the lower part of the body, the torch will begin to resemble a blowtorch, fuel consumption will increase sharply, and the flame itself will be barely noticeable - transparent blue. Let's make holes on the sides of the body - we will also get an almost invisible flame, the combustion temperature of which is very high in a strong side wind, which leads to the risk of melting the body elements. To avoid this, Krasmash engineers placed the burner at the bottom of a special refractory glass, and wound a nichrome thread around its perimeter.
When the torch burns, the thread acts as a spiral for glow ignition - it becomes red-hot and ignites the gas-air mixture if the flame is “broken” by a strong gust of wind.
It would seem that everything was provided for, checked, tested. But the devil, as we know, is in the details.
Debriefing
On October 6, 2013, the weather was not bad. The sun often winked from behind the clouds, a weak breeze blew, only 1 m/s. And yet the torch went out. Right under the walls of the Kremlin, in the 20th second of the race, in the hands of 17-time world champion in scuba diving Shavarsh Karapetyan. This incident received a special resonance also because a FSO officer who happened to be nearby “lit” the extinguished torch – and not with the Olympic flame from a special lamp, but with an ordinary lighter.
(By the way, this was not the first such case in history: in 1976 in Montreal, a powerful gust of wind and rain extinguished not even a torch, but the Olympic flame in the bowl of the stadium, and a nearby technician, without thinking twice, set it on fire with an ordinary lighter. Later, of course , to maintain tradition, the fire was extinguished and re-lit from the “original”, as in Moscow). And this was just the beginning: over the next two days, I had to “light” the “Firebird Feather” from a special lamp with the Olympic flame four times.
The reason was found quite quickly. For a correct combustion process, the gas supply channel must be completely open. Otherwise, a non-free channel may affect the stability of the flame. But the valve needle has a slight play in the cage that compresses it and can rotate freely around the longitudinal axis. This was done specifically so as not to deform the edges of the locked channel.
On the other hand, it is necessary that the valve opens when turned a quarter turn, and further rotation is limited by a stop. This is done to ensure the ergonomics of the torch. Turning the tap more than 90 degrees is simply inconvenient: you need to turn the brush unnaturally or ask someone for help. As a result, it turned out that when the faucet handle is turned a quarter turn, the deviation of the needle from the channel does not open it enough. It is clear that at some point the needle may block the channel again! The issue was resolved by fully opening the tap. As a result, the number of extinguished torches immediately decreased noticeably.
Could the specialists of Krasmash, a powerful enterprise with an impeccable product, make a miscalculation? According to Vladimir Pirozhkov, this is a normal part of routine design work: “According to the terms of the International Olympic Committee, the torch must burn only once and only with the Olympic flame. That is... each torch is sent to the relay without testing, straight from the assembly line.
But for any machine-building plant (and Krasmash is no exception) launching mass production from scratch without multi-level qualification tests of finished products is nonsense. Any production in any country has a certain percentage of substandard production, which is eliminated during the testing process. Based on the results of which, by the way, adjustments are made to the production process to reduce this percentage. And the production of torches is completely out of this scheme.
Of course, there was a batch of products intended specifically for testing. This spontaneous sample from the series behaved in an ideal manner. They did everything they could with the torches: they blew them in a wind tunnel, poured them with water, froze them at -40°C, dropped them into a snowdrift - and whatever! These are the lucky specimens we came across. It was forbidden for Krasmash to test the remaining 16,000 products.
Learn from mistakes
The Olympic torch is the main symbol of any Olympics. The attitude towards him is always emphatically focused. But there were extinguished torches at all the Olympic Games, these cases just did not receive wide publicity. The 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi are covered very widely and brightly, and therefore there may be an impression of serious technical problems. In fact, there is no tragedy in the extinguished torches. “Canadians experienced enormous problems with the torch of the Olympic Games in Vancouver,” explains Vladimir Pirozhkov. – Let me remind you, it was developed by the Canadian industrial giant Bombardier.
Of the 7,000 copies produced, 146 went out. And with a strong wind, the temperature of the Vancouver torch’s flame increased to such an extent that the plastic structural elements began to melt, and later, right during the relay, the developers screwed special fire-resistant shields to the torch. (The first torch began to melt almost right in the hands of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was launching the Olympic torch relay. - “PM.”) And this, generally speaking, is normal practice. Over the years of its existence, the International Olympic Committee has developed a condition to consider as the norm a situation where the number of extinguished torches does not exceed 5% of their total number.
The Olympic torch relay is always accompanied by a special team that carries a light in several lamps, authentic to the one lit on the Greek Olympus. It is from this that the extinguished torches are set on fire. Our relay is the longest in history – more than 65,000 km. It involves a record number of torches. In extreme conditions (North Pole, Arctic) the torch behaves very reliably. 16,000 pieces were manufactured by Krasmash, of which the number of extinct ones is unlikely to exceed 2%. Considering our harsh climatic conditions, this is a very good result.
Mystical fate dominates the Olympic torch-builders of all times and peoples, no matter how venerable they may be. It is difficult to doubt the competence of specialists from Bombardier, a manufacturer of aircraft and railway transport, or the formidable Krasmash. Dozens of Turin torches were extinguished, although their developer and manufacturer, the world-famous company Pininfarina, knows how to design more complex objects - car bodies for Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar. A rational explanation nevertheless exists.
“There are no companies in nature that systematically develop Olympic torches,” states Vladimir Pirozhkov, “and we are very proud of our cooperation with the Sochi-2014 organizing committee and the legendary Krasmash plant! – Accordingly, there is no accumulated and recorded experience. Every country has to start from scratch. And it seems that every time engineering works in approximately the same way: “No question! Just think, make a big lighter!”
And although the gas burner technology has indeed been worked out to the smallest detail, as soon as they try to put it in the jacket of the original body, the fun begins. The story about the issues that our specialists faced when developing the torch, I am sure, will be useful for future Olympic torch builders.”
