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Olympic torch is Nazi legacy!
The most beloved emblems of the modern Olympics have a decidedly dark past. The torch was a creation of Adolf Hitler, who tried to turn the 1936 Berlin Games into a celebration of the Third Reich.
The most beloved emblems of the modern Olympics have a decidedly dark past.
The torch relay, which culminated in yesterday's ceremonial lighting of the flame at the Olympic Stadium, was a creation of Adolf Hitler, who tried to turn the 1936 Berlin Games into a celebration of the Third Reich.
And it was Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine that popularised the five interlocking rings as the symbol of the Games.
Today, both are universally recognised icons of the Olympics. But historians say neither had much, if anything, to do with the Games born centuries ago in Ancient Olympia.
"The torch relay is so ingrained in the modern choreography that most people today assume it was a revival of a pagan tradition - unaware that it was actually concocted for Hitler's Games in Berlin," author Tony Perrottet writes in a new book, "The Naked Olympics."
"Ironically, considering its repellent origins, the torch race has come to symbolise international brotherhood today, and remains a centerpiece of our own pomp-filled Olympic opening ceremonies."
A sacred flame did burn 24 hours a day at Olympia, and at some other ancient festivals, relay racers passed a torch to light a sacrificial cauldron. But the ancient Greeks opened their Olympics by word of mouth, not fire, sending heralds - not torchbearers - running through the streets.
The modern tradition of spiriting the Olympic torch to the main stadium didn't become a fixture of the games until 1936, when a 12-day run opened the Games in Berlin.
