Concerns and controversies at the 2008 Summer Olympics ancient Olympia stadium and interrupted the speech of Liu Qi, head of the Beijing Games committee. One protestor tried to snatch the microphone as another unrolled a black flag showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs. Nearly 50 Tibetan exiles in India began a global torch relay 25 March 2008 with a symbolic "Olympic" flame that ended in Tibet on 8 August 2008, the day of the Summer Games' opening ceremonies in Beijing. Although the torch was heavily guarded by local police and Chinese security agents wearing blue track suits, protesters attempting to stop the relay or take the torch were
Sport Aid Global Special Events, UNICEF). A central event was the lighting of a symbolic torch at the United Nations by Omar Khalifa, a champion Sudanese 1500m runner to signal the start the 10K races around the world. Khalifa began his journey to the United Nations on May 16, when he lit a torch from the embers of fire in El Moweilih relief camp in the Sudan. He was then flown to Athens where the torch of Africa and the Olympic torch were symbolically joined. This was the first time the Olympic torch had been lit outside of an Olympic Games. He