1968 Summer Olympics torch relay the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for the host nation provided all the torch-bearers, but for this event each country through which the torch passed was allowed to select their own representatives. The route was designed to replicate that taken by Christopher Columbus in his first visit to the New World. Three locations were seen as key to the route: The flame was lit in Olympia and then taken to Athens where a ceremony greeted it on 24 August 1968. From there runners carried the torch to the port of Piraeus and it was taken aboard the Greek destroyer HNS "Navarino".
London 2012 Olympic Torch gripped, as does its textured surface, which is perforated with 8,000 holes. The holes represent the 8,000 runners in the London 2012 Torch Relay and the relay distance. Functionally, they reduce the torch's overall weight and ensure that heat from its flame is dissipated without conducting down the handle. They create a level of transparency in the torch, where one can see through to the flame and burner mechanism, and they also allow a 'fuller' flame that escapes from all sides of the Torch, rather than solely from the top, where the flame can tend to be flattened when a