Ancient Olympia, Greece: The London 2012 Olympics torch was kindled by the sun's rays in ancient Olympia on Thursday, sparking a relay that will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic stadium's cauldron at the Games opening ceremony on July 27.
On a warm and sunny day at the site of the ancient Olympics, an actress playing the high priestess needed only a few seconds to ignite the torch with the help of a parabolic mirror. Under the bright sunny skies, there was no need for the back-up flame that was used during the final rehearsal for the Olympic torch lightening a day earlier.
After the end of a choreographed ceremony, the priestess handed over the torch to the first torchbearer, Greek swimmer and Olympic silver medallist Spyros Gianniotis.
Gianniotis is the first in a line of 490 torchbearers to carry the flame across 2,900 kilometers on Greek soil before the flame will handed over to the London Games organizers on May 17 in Athens' Panathenian Stadium, where the first modern Games were staged in 1896....
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03:26 PM, May 10, 2012
