List of people who have lit the Olympic cauldron

Table columns:
Games
Location
Lighter
Sport
Note
Ref

Table rows:
cells: 1936 Summer
Berlin
Fritz Schilgen
Track and field
Schilgen was not a competitor at the Olympics, but was chosen for his graceful running style.
[1]
cells: 1948 Summer
London
John Mark
Track and field
Little-known former medical student from Cambridge University.
[2]
cells: 1952 Winter
Oslo
Eigil Nansen
Non-athlete
Grandson of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. He is the first non-athlete to light the flame.
[3]
cells: 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. Kolehmainen then lit the final, higher-placed cauldron.
[4]
cells: Hannes Kolehmainen
cells: 1956 Winter
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Guido Caroli
Speed skating
Participant in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics. Skating with the torch, he tripped over a television cable but kept the flame burning.
[5]
cells: 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.
[6]
cells: Hans Wikne (Stockholm)
Equestrianism
cells: 1960 Winter
Squaw Valley
Ken Henry
Speed skating
Olympic champion in 500m speed skating at the 1952 Games.
[7]
cells: 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. Peris won and was chosen to be the last torchbearer.
[8]
cells: 1964 Winter
Innsbruck
Josef Rieder
Alpine skiing
Participant in the 1956 Olympics.
[9]
cells: 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.
[10]
cells: 1968 Winter
Grenoble
Alain Calmat
Figure skating
Winner of the silver medal in the 1964 Olympics.
[11]
cells: 1968 Summer
Mexico City
Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo
Track and field
Sprinter who participated in these Olympics; the first woman to light the main Olympic cauldron.
[12]
cells: 1972 Winter
Sapporo
Hideki Takada
Speed skating
[13]
cells: 1972 Summer
Munich
Günther Zahn
Track and field
Middle distance runner. Winner at the German junior athletics championships.
[14]
cells: 1976 Winter
Innsbruck
Christl Haas
Alpine skiing
Haas won the Olympic downhill title in 1964; Feistmantl won luge doubles in the same year.
[15]
cells: Josef Feistmantl
Luge
cells: 1976 Summer
Montreal
Stéphane Préfontaine
Track and field
Two teenagers representing English and French Canada. Neither of them would participate in future Olympics.
[16]
cells: Sandra Henderson
Gymnastics
cells: 1980 Winter
Lake Placid
Charles Morgan Kerr
Non-athlete
Doctor from Arizona who had been elected from all 52 bearers to run the final leg.
[17]
cells: 1980 Summer
Moscow
Sergey Belov
Basketball
Member of the Soviet Basketball team who won four Olympic medals.
[18]
cells: 1984 Winter
Sarajevo
Sanda Dubravčić
Figure skating
Participant in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
[19]
cells: 1984 Summer
Los Angeles
Rafer Johnson
Track and field
Decathlon gold medalist at the 1960 Olympics.
[20]
cells: 1988 Winter
Calgary
Robyn Perry
Figure skating
A 12-year-old schoolgirl and aspiring figure skater.
[21]
cells: 1988 Summer
Seoul
Chung Sun-man
Non-athlete
Chung Sun-Man was a schoolteacher. Sohn was a young Korean dancer. Kim Won-tak was a young track athlete who took part in that year's marathon.
[22]
cells: Sohn Mi-chung
cells: Kim Won-tak
Track and field
cells: 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) and was nine years old at the time, becoming the youngest final lighter in history.
[23]
cells: François-Cyrille Grange
Alpine skiing
cells: 1992 Summer
Barcelona
Antonio Rebollo
Archery
Paralympian who competed in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Summer Paralympic Games, 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.
[24]
cells: 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. His father declared the games open.
[25]
cells: 1996 Summer
Atlanta
Muhammad Ali
Boxing
1960 heavyweight gold medalist and professional world champion who is considered the greatest boxer of all time.
[26]
cells: 1998 Winter
Nagano
Midori Ito
Figure skating
Winner of Olympic silver in 1992.
[27]
cells: 2000 Summer
Sydney
Cathy Freeman
Track and field
Winner of Olympic silver in 1996 and 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.
[28]
cells: 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 Union team en route to the gold medal.
[29]
cells: 2004 Summer
Athens
Nikolaos Kaklamanakis
Sailing
Winner of Olympic gold in 1996 and silver in these Olympics.
[30]
cells: 2006 Winter
Turin
Stefania Belmondo
Cross-country skiing
Winner of ten Olympic medals, two of them gold. One of Italy's most decorated Olympians.
[31]
cells: 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.
[32]
cells: 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. Nash is a two-time NBA MVP with the Phoenix Suns and a former member of the Canadian Olympic Basketball team. Greene won gold in the giant slalom and silver in the slalom in 1968. Gretzky was a member of the Canadian ice hockey team and won four Stanley Cup titles as captain of the Edmonton Oilers (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988). He was the Executive Director of the Canadian men's hockey team in 2002, who won gold at those games. During the opening ceremony, Nash, Greene and Gretzky lit a cauldron inside the BC Place indoor stadium. Gretzky then lit a second, outdoor cauldron near the Vancouver Convention Centre. Only the outdoor cauldron remained lit throughout the Games. Le May Doan was supposed to participate in the lighting of the indoor cauldron, but was left out when one of the four arms failed to raise due to mechanical problems. This was corrected at the beginning of the closing ceremony, when a joke was made about the mechanical error, and she was able to light the newly emerged fourth arm and relight the indoor cauldron to begin the closing ceremony.
[33][34][35]
cells: Nancy Greene (indoor cauldron)
Alpine skiing
cells: Wayne Gretzky (indoor & outdoor cauldrons)
Ice hockey
cells: Catriona Le May Doan (closing ceremony)
Speed skating
cells: 2012 Summer
London
Desiree Henry
Track and field
The cauldron was lit by seven aspiring young athletes, 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. Austin Playfoot later relit the cauldron in its new spot in the Olympic Stadium. The seven youngsters are commonly referred to as the "Secret Seven" as their identity and role was a closely guarded secret until the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. Henry would later go on to win an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m in 2016.
[36][37]
cells: Katie Kirk
cells: Aidan Reynolds
cells: Adelle Tracey
cells: Callum Airlie
Sailing
cells: Jordan Duckitt
Volunteering: Young Ambassadors
cells: Cameron MacRitchie
Rowing
cells: 2014 Winter
Sochi
Irina Rodnina
Figure skating
Rodnina won three successive Olympic gold medals. Tretiak won four medals (three golds).
[38]
cells: Vladislav Tretiak
Ice hockey
cells: 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.
[39][40]
cells: Jorge Gomes (public cauldron)
A second, outdoor cauldron was lit in front of Candelaria Church by 14-year-old, who is part of a sports project in Rio de Janeiro.
cells: 2018 Winter
Pyeongchang
Yuna Kim
Figure skating
Winner of Olympic Gold in the Ladies' singles in 2010 and silver in 2014.
[41]

Questions about this table:
originalText: who lit the flame at the 26th olympic games
answer: answerTexts: Muhammad Ali