2008 Summer Olympics torch relay 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China. The relay, also called by the organizers as the "Journey of Harmony", lasted 129 days and carried the torch – the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition was started ahead of the 1936 Summer Olympics. After being lit at the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Olympia, Greece on
1956 Olympic Flame hoax a fire extinguisher, but none succeeded. 1956 Olympic Flame hoax The 1956 Olympic Flame hoax was a hoax during the 1956 Summer Olympics, in which Barry Larkin, a veterinary student from Melbourne, pretended to be running with the Olympic Flame. Larkin and eight other students at St John's College, University of Sydney planned to protest against the Olympic Flame torch relay. One reason for the protest was that the torch relay was invented by the Nazis at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Their plan was for one student, dressed in white shorts and a white top, to carry