List of people who have lit the Olympic cauldron
People who have lit the Olympic cauldron

List of people who have lit the Olympic cauldron

Section Title: People who have lit the Olympic cauldron
Table Section Text: None

Games	Location	Lighter	Sport	Note	Ref

1936 Summer	Berlin	Fritz Schilgen	Track and field	Schilgen was not a competitor at the Olympics, but was chosen for his graceful running style.

1948 Summer	London	John Mark	Track and field	Little-known former medical student from Cambridge University.

1952 Winter	Oslo	Eigil Nansen	Non-athlete	Grandson of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. He is the first non-athlete to light the flame.

1952 Summer	Helsinki	Paavo Nurmi	Track and field	Nurmi was a winner of nine Olympic gold medals in the 1920s; Kolehmainen won four Olympic gold medals. Nurmi lit a cauldron on field level before handing the torch to four soccer players who relayed the torch to the top of the tower.

Hannes Kolehmainen

1956 Winter	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Guido Caroli	Speed skating	Participant in the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Winter Olympics. Skating with the torch, he tripped over a television cable but kept the flame burning.

1956 Summer	Melbourne	Ron Clarke (Melbourne)	Track and field	Clarke would later win an Olympic bronze medal in 1964; Wikne participated in the 1964 Olympics. After Wikne lit the brazier on the infield, the flame was passed on to Karin Lindberg and Henry Ericksson, who separately ran up the two towers of the Stockholm Olympic Stadium.

Hans Wikne (Stockholm)	Equestrianism

1960 Winter	Squaw Valley	Ken Henry	Speed skating	Olympic champion in 500m speed skating at the 1952 Winter Olympics.

1960 Summer	Rome	Giancarlo Peris	Track and field	Track athlete of Greek descent. The Italian National Olympic Committee decided that the last torchbearer of the Olympic Games would be the winner of a junior cross country running race.

1964 Winter	Innsbruck	Josef Rieder	Alpine skiing	Participant in the 1956 Winter Olympics.

1964 Summer	Tokyo	Yoshinori Sakai	Track and field	Sakai was born on the same day the atom bomb exploded over his native Hiroshima. He never participated in the Olympics.

1968 Winter	Grenoble	Alain Calmat	Figure skating	Winner of the silver medal in the 1964 Winter Olympics.

1968 Summer	Mexico City	Enriqueta Basilio	Track and field	Sprinter who participated in these Olympics; the first woman to light the main Olympic cauldron.

1972 Winter	Sapporo	Hideki Takada	Non-athlete	A volleyball enthusiast who knew nothing of winter sports.

1972 Summer	Munich	Günther Zahn	Track and field	Middle distance runner. Winner of the West German junior athletics championships.

1976 Winter	Innsbruck	Christl Haas	Alpine skiing	Haas won gold on downhill in 1964 Winter Olympics; Feistmantl won luge doubles in the same Games.

Josef Feistmantl	Luge

1976 Summer	Montreal	Sandra Henderson	Gymnastics	Two teenagers representing English and French Canadian. Neither of them participated in any Olympics.

Stéphane Préfontaine	Track and field

1980 Winter	Lake Placid	Charles Gugino	Non-athlete	A doctor from Arizona who had been elected from all 52 bearers to run the final leg.

1980 Summer	Moscow	Sergei Belov	Basketball	Member of the Soviet basketball team, gold medalist in 1972 Summer Games.

1984 Winter	Sarajevo	Sanda Dubravčić	Figure skating	Participant in the 1980 and 1984 Winter Olympics.

1984 Summer	Los Angeles	Rafer Johnson	Track and field	Decathlon gold medalist at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

1988 Winter	Calgary	Robyn Perry	Figure skating	A 12-year-old schoolgirl and aspiring figure skater.

1988 Summer	Seoul	Chung Sun-man	Non-athlete	Chung Sun-man was a schoolteacher. Sohn was a young Korean dancer.

Sohn Mi-chung

Kim Won-tak	Track and field

1992 Winter	Albertville	Michel Platini	Association football	Platini took part with the French football team in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Grange was a future alpine skier (and older brother of future multiple-time alpine skiing Slalom world champion Jean-Baptiste Grange).

François-Cyrille Grange	Alpine skiing

1992 Summer	Barcelona	Antonio Rebollo	Archery	Paralympian who competed in the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Summer Paralympics, winning two silvers and a bronze. The only Paralympian ever to light the Olympic cauldron, Rebollo shot a flaming arrow over an open natural gas cauldron to ignite it.

1994 Winter	Lillehammer	Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway	Non-athlete	Heir apparent to the throne of Norway. Though he was not an Olympian, both his father and grandfather took part in the Olympics and he lit the cauldron on their behalf.

1996 Summer	Atlanta	Muhammad Ali	Boxing	1960 Summer Games light heavyweight boxing gold medalist.

1998 Winter	Nagano	Midori Ito	Figure skating	1992 Winter Olympic silver medalist.

2000 Summer	Sydney	Cathy Freeman	Track and field	Olympic silver medalist in 1996 and would later won Olympic gold in these Olympics, both in the 400 m. She is the only person ever to light a cauldron and win a gold medal in the same Games.

2002 Winter	Salt Lake City	The 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team	Ice hockey	Famous for the "Miracle on Ice"; an upset of the Soviet hockey team en route to the gold medal.

2004 Summer	Athens	Nikolaos Kaklamanakis	Sailing	Winner of Olympic gold in 1996 and would win a silver in these Olympics.

2006 Winter	Turin	Stefania Belmondo	Cross-country skiing	Winner of ten Olympic medals, two of them gold. One of Italy's most decorated Olympians.

2008 Summer	Beijing	Li Ning	Artistic gymnastics	Winner of six Olympic medals, including three gold in 1984. He was China's most successful athlete at their first Olympic appearance since 1952.

2010 Winter	Vancouver	Steve Nash (indoor cauldron)	Basketball	Le May Doan was a winner of two gold medals in the 500 m in 1998 and 2002 and a bronze in the 1000 m in 1998.

Nancy Greene (indoor cauldron)	Alpine skiing

Wayne Gretzky (indoor & outdoor cauldrons)	Ice hockey

Catriona Le May Doan (closing ceremony)	Speed skating

2012 Summer	London	Desiree Henry	Track and field	The cauldron was lit by seven teenagers, each nominated by a veteran British Olympian: Airlie was nominated by Shirley Robertson, Duckitt by Duncan Goodhew, Henry by Daley Thompson, Kirk by Dame Mary Peters, MacRitchie by Sir Steve Redgrave, Reynolds by Lynn Davies and Tracey by Dame Kelly Holmes.

Katie Kirk

Aidan Reynolds

Adelle Tracey

Callum Airlie	Sailing

Jordan Duckitt	Non-athlete (Young Ambassadors Group)

Cameron MacRitchie	Rowing

2014 Winter	Sochi	Irina Rodnina	Figure skating	Rodnina won three successive Olympic gold medals. Tretiak won four medals (three golds).

Vladislav Tretiak	Ice hockey

2016 Summer	Rio de Janeiro	Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima (stadium cauldron)	Athletics	Winner of the bronze medal in the marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics. De Lima was the first Latin American awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal after he was deliberately interrupted during that event.

Jorge Gomes (public cauldron)	A second, outdoor cauldron was lit in front of Candelaria Church by 14-year-old, who was part of a sports project in Rio de Janeiro.

2018 Winter	Pyeongchang	Yuna Kim	Figure skating	Winner of Olympic gold in the ladies' singles in 2010 and silver in 2014.

Sentence(s)

After lighting the flame in the Olympic Cauldron, Nurmi passed the torch to Kolehmainen, who lighted the beacon in the tower.

final_sentence: After lighting the flame in the Olympic Cauldron, Nurmi passed the torch to Kolehmainen, who lighted the beacon in the tower.