Sochi, Russia, 2013-12-05 — /travelprnews.com/ — The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee has announced that the Cauldron at the Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony of the XXII Olympic Winter Games will be lit using the Torch that travelled to outer space during the Olympic Torch Relay. The lighting of the Olympic Cauldron is traditionally the highlight to the Opening Ceremony and the identity of the torchbearer lighting the flame is traditionally a well-kept secret. Each host country of the Games strives to make the lighting ceremony the most spectacular and memorable.
The London 2012 Olympic Cauldron was made from 205 copper vessels in a shape resembling petals on long stems. The parts of the cauldron were lit by seven young British athletes. The petals were then raised, forming the huge cauldron with a single flame. After the completion of the Games, the Olympic team of each participating country took its petal home in memory of the Games’ unforgettable moments.
The Flame of the 2010 Games in Vancouver was set ablaze at the BC Place arena at the end of the Opening Ceremony. The flame resembled a huge bonfire, where 16-meter crystals made of steel and covered with a special compound burned. The “Olympic bonfire” represented the main theme of the Opening Ceremony for the Games in Vancouver – the unity of ice and flame.
During the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing of 2008, the country’s Olympic champions from various years passed the Olympic flame in a sequence. Having gone around the entire stadium, the flame lit the Olympic cauldron.
Notes to the Editor:
The Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi will take place on February 7, 2014, and will began at exactly 20:14 Moscow time, which will symbolize the year that the first Winter Games in the history of Russia are held. The Opening Ceremony will take place at the Fisht Olympic stadium and will last about three hours.
The lighting of the cauldron will signify the completion of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay, which started in Athens on September 29, 2013, and at the time of the opening of the Games, will have covered a distance of 65,000 km throughout Russia in 123 days.
ANO “Ceremonies Staging Agency” is the legal entity established by ANO “Organizing Committee “Sochi 2014”, operating for the purposes of ensuring the most effective implementation of measures to organize and stage the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2014 Games in Sochi in accordance with the requirements of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee.
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