On October 18, on the eve of the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Winter Olympics, the seeds of the Winter Olympic Games were successfully collected at the ancient Olympia site in the Peloponnese Peninsula in Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
Greek President Katrina Sacraloplu, IOC President Thomas Bach, Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spiralos and Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee Special Representative, Vice President of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee Yu Zaiqing attended the gathering ceremony on the same day.
The ceremony began at around 11:30 a.m. that day, and the Olympic five-ring flag was slowly raised as the Olympic anthem sounded over the ruins of the ancient Olympia Hera Temple. Subsequently, the Chinese national anthem and the Greek national anthem were played on the spot, and the national flags of the two countries were raised respectively.
Tinder gathering is an iconic event in the Olympic Movement. At the ancient Olympic Games, people lit fires in honor of Prometheus, who stole fire for mankind in ancient Greek mythology. In the history of the modern Olympic Games, tinder was first introduced in 1928, and tindering began at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At about 12 noon local time, in front of the 2,500-year-old temple site of Hera, the famous Greek actress Sansi Giorgio, who played the highest priestess, prayed to Apollo, the god of light, and lit the fire with a concave mirror.
The High Priestess passed the torch and the olive branch symbolizing peace and glory to the first torchbearer, the Greek alpine skier Janis Antonio, who "flew" the torch of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Armed with a "flying" torch, Antoni Wu ran all the way to the monument of Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, to pass the torch to the second torchbearer, Li Jiajun, a former Chinese short track speed skater. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Li Jiajun won the silver medal in the 1,000 meters, becoming the first male athlete in China to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.
On the 19th, the Hellenic Olympic Committee will pass the torch to the delegation of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee after a three-stick torch relay at the Marble Stadium in Athens (Panahineco Stadium).
Text/Wang Xiaoxi
Photo/ Wang Xiaoxi