Under, Over and Around Moscow: The Olympic Torch Relay
Under, Over and Around Moscow: The Olympic Torch Relay
Sputnik International
The largest national Olympic torch relay in history started on October 7 in Moscow. The flame will travel for 123 days and 65,000 km through 2,900 cities and... 10.10.2013, Sputnik International
The largest national Olympic torch relay in history started on October 7 in Moscow. The flame will travel for 123 days and 65,000 km through 2,900 cities and villages. The relay will conclude on February 7, 2014 at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Russia’s southern resort city of Sochi.
The largest national Olympic torch relay in history started on October 7 in Moscow. The flame will travel for 123 days and 65,000 km through 2,900 cities and villages. The relay will conclude on February 7, 2014 at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Russia’s southern resort city of Sochi.
The Moscow leg of the Olympic torch relay ended Thursday. The flame was transported by the Moscow metro from the Slavyansky Bulvar station to Park Pobedy.
The first leg of the national relay began on Moscow’s Red Square on Monday. Five-time Olympic synchronized swimming champion Anastasia Davydova was the first torchbearer. She covered 300 meters and then handed the flame on to two-time artistic gymnastics champion Svetlana Khorkina (photo).
World War II veteran Boris Runov, a laureate of the prestigious Hero of the Soviet Union medal, carries the torch at the opening of the Olympic torch relay in Moscow.
About 5,000 police officers, soldiers and volunteers were enlisted to ensure public order. But officials did not manage to prevent traffic jams, with many roads in the city center closed.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin lit the torch of the Sochi Olympics on Red Square during an official ceremony that also featured a concert and part of the Festival of Light.
Many-time world finswimming champion Shavarsh Karapetyan also took part in the relay. Karapetyan, born in 1953 in Armenia, is known not only for his multiple sporting achievements, but also for rescuing 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into the Yerevan reservoir in 1976. At a depth of 10 meters, Karapetyan managed to break the rear window of the trolleybus and pulled the people out of the ice-cold water.
Karapetyan took part in the relay on both Sunday and Tuesday. On Sunday, October 6, the flame went out for over 20 seconds, after which one of the participants relit the torch. This happened again the next day.
On Wednesday, the safety lantern was carried to the Ostankino TV Tower to a height of 337 meters by Russian figure skater and TV presenter Irina Slutskaya (photo). The flame was also taken to the Olimpiisky sports complex.
On Thursday, the torch relay moved on to the Moscow Region. Photo: The flame bearers get off a helicopter near the government building of the Moscow Region prior to the next leg of the relay.
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