What happens to the Olympic flame during the “off years”?
They snuff it out. Yes, we know, it sounds like heresy, especially in light of the fact that the flame is treated like royalty during its journey to the games, but it’s the plain truth. How did we figure this out? Here’s our own little Olympic torch relay: We searched on “olympic flame history” and immediately came across two interesting sites. The first, a photo galley of the May 2000 torch-lighting ceremony in Greece, implied that the torch is usually lit from the “direct rays of the sun,” rather than some ever-burning lantern on Mt. Olympus. The second site, The Olympic Museum, offered an entire section devoted to the Olympic Flame and Torch Relay. There we found confirmation of the
