OLYMPIA – The flame for the London 2012 torch relay and Olympic Games has been lit during a ceremony in Olympia, Greece.It was kindled by actress Ino Menegaki, playing a “high priestess”, who caught the sun’s rays in a parabolic mirror.The ceremony took place amid the Temple of Hera ruins, by the ancient Olympic Games stadium. The flame went out briefly before being relit and transferred to the first torchbearer.The flame flies to Britain on Friday 18 May for a 70-day relay around the UK.At the temple ruins, actresses playing Olympic priestesses danced and men dressed as heralds put on a display symbolising athletic strength before the fire was ignited using the mirror.The flame - an Olympic symbol meant to represent purity because it comes directly from the sun - was placed in an urn and taken to the stadium where the ancient Olympic Games were held.It was transferred to a Greek torch which then “kissed” the London 2012 torch of Liverpool-born Greek world champion 10km swimmer Spyros Gianniotis.He began to run with it on the first leg of its week-long journey around Greece.Flame outOur correspondent James Pearce reported that the flame briefly went out as it was being transferred from the temple to the stadium, but the ceremony passed otherwise without incident in a country battling political and economic turmoil.Chairman of the London games organisers, Locog, Lord Coe, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos were in Olympia for the moment that marks the countdown to London 2012.Lord Coe told the BBC: “Today is the rallying call to the athletes - the best athletes of their generation - to come to London. That in itself is a big moment because it’s the biggest sporting event in the calendar.”
