The Olympic torch relay, in which the Olympic flame is carried from Greece's Olympia, site of the first Games 2,800 years ago, to the current location of the Games, was introduced in 1936 for the Berlin Games. This year's relay will first tour Greece, before beginning an extended tour of Britian and ending on July 27 in London.
Olympic Torch Relays -- From Berlin To Beijing
1
Actress Ino Menegaki, playing the role of high priestess, holds up the Olympic flame during a dress rehearsal for the torch-lighting ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the site of ancient Olympia on May 9.
2
Torchbearer Fritz Schilgen carries the Olympic flame to open the Berlin Games in 1936, after a trip of 3,422 kilometers.
3
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler gives the Nazi salute during the opening ceremony of the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936.
4
Mexican hurdler Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo becomes the first woman to light the Olympic flame in Mexico City in October 1968.
5
Space shuttle "Columbia" crew member Richard Linnehan (right) holds the Olympic torch in July 1996, the first relay tour into space.
6
Former heavyweight boxing champion and 1960 Olympic gold medalist Muhammad Ali lights the flame at the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta in July 1996.
7
Using a specially designed flare, Australian diver Wendy Craig Duncan carries the Olympic torch underwater along the Great Barrier Reef in June 2000.
8
Australian aborigine athlete Cathy Freeman lights the Olympic cauldron in Sydney in September 2000.
9
Chinese President Hu Jintao lights the Olympic torch on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on March 31, 2008, ahead of a trip around the world that saw the flame travel 130,000 kilometers.
10
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev holds the Olympic torch at a stadium outside Almaty, the first stop after Beijing, in April 2008.
11
The Beijing torch relay attracted protests against China's rights record and for Tibetan independence, such as this protest in Paris in April 2008.
12
Three demonstrators scale the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl two "Free Tibet" banners in San Francisco, California, where the torch relay took an undisclosed route, in April 2008.
13
An Indonesian police officer stands beside an anti-Chinese banner during a demonstration organized by pro-Tibet activists and supporters during the Olympic torch's visit to Jakarta in April 2008.
14
Chinese basketball star Yao Ming holds the Olympic torch in Tiananmen Square during the China leg of the relay in Beijing in August 2008.
15
The design for the Olympic torch for the London 2012 Games was revealed in June 2011.
16
British boxer Alexandros Lucas holds the torch with the Olympic flame during the torch relay after the lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia on May 10, 2012.
