# How do they get the Olympic flame over seas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557 "2004-06-22T02:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/1 "2004-06-22T02:20:25Z")
Recently I noted that the Olympic flame was being run around somewhere in the USA. It is my understanding that the United States and Greece are on separate continents. Therefore, the flame, in order to be continuously passed all the way to Athens, must at some point be transported overseas. How is this done? Presumably you aren’t going to have some dude in a track suit sitting in 24F on a 747 holding a big ol’ torch. So how is a flame continuously transported over an ocean? By boat? Or is the whole flame thing a crock and they put it out at night and just light it up again with a Zippo whenever the cameras are rolling? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/2 "2004-06-22T02:30:59Z")
It’s placed in a lantern and carried on a plane. Then a torch is relit on landing. Remember it’s just flame. Not a torch that is important. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/3 "2004-06-22T02:57:51Z")
Well, the Olympic COmmittee tries to act as if preserving the flame’s continutiy is off the greatest importance… but back during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. the flame went out one day, and a groundskeeper just restarted it with a cigarette lighter. It wasn’t until days later that someone in a position of authority found out what happened, and they made a big point of shutting off the flame and then re-lighting it with “real” Olympic fire. But really, who knows that the “real” fire wasn’t extinguished and re-lit with a cigarette lighter at some point? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/4 "2004-06-22T03:08:49Z")
You mean it isn’t carried over by the various swim teams? Man, I am so bummed out. Tris ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/5 "2004-06-22T05:07:10Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > You mean it isn’t carried over by the various swim teams? Not if the longjumpers have anything to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/6 "2004-06-22T06:08:42Z")
I thought they had a team of curlers busily sweeping the ice and sending it over the North Pole. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/7 "2004-06-22T07:12:20Z")
While the flame was making it’s way around Australia it was mentioned that they have a standby flame/torch to re-light the main one if it went out on a windy day. Being a flame it’s pretty easy to create lots of little baby standby Olympic Flames if required. They could send it into the Sun on a space probe, and then it’d last for a long long time. If the one on earth went out you could use a magnifying glass to focus the Sun’s rays and light another legitimate Olympic Flame! ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/8 "2004-06-22T07:26:14Z")
> [@1920s Style "Death Ray"](#): > > They could send it into the Sun on a space probe, and then it’d last for a long long time. If the one on earth went out you could use a magnifying glass to focus the Sun’s rays and light another legitimate Olympic Flame! They already use the sun to start the flame. > [@](#): > > _from [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame)_ > The Olympic Flame is nowadays ignited several months before the opening celebration of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics, Olympia, Greece. Eleven priestesses (played by actresses) light the fire by placing a torch in a concave lens which concentrates rays from the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/9 "2004-06-22T11:06:39Z")
> [@1920s Style "Death Ray"](#): > > If the one on earth went out you could use a magnifying glass to focus the Sun’s rays and light another legitimate Olympic Flame! Maybe, instead of **Sun Rays** , they could use **1920s Style "Death Rays"** ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/10 "2004-06-22T12:44:48Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > It’s placed in a lantern and carried on a plane. Then a torch is relit on landing. Remember it’s just flame. Not a torch that is important. Not just any plane, either. Nowadays it has its own plane! The torch was here in Cape Town week ago, they also flew it by Helicopter to Robben Island so Nelson Mandela could hold it outside his old prison cell. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-get-the-olympic-flame-over-seas/251557/11 "2004-06-22T12:54:05Z")
They use the “Death Rays” to extinguish it.