Olympic flame Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. The idea for the Olympic flame was derived from ancient Greece, where a sacred fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics on the altar of the sanctuary of Hestia. In Ancient Greek mythology, fire had divine connotations — it was thought to have been stolen from the gods by Prometheus. Sacred fires were present at many ancient Greek sanctuaries, including those at Olympia. Every four years, when Zeus was honoured at the Olympic Games, additional fires were lit at his temple and that of his wife, Hera. The modern Olympic flame is
1956 Olympic Flame hoax 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 a fake torch. The fake torch