Host city Athens, Greece End date August 13, 2004 | Start date March 25, 2004 | |
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Countries visited Greece, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria, Cyprus | ||
The 2004 Summer Olympics Torch Relay took the Olympic Flame across every habitable continent, returning to Athens, Greece. Every city which had hosted the Summer Olympics was revisited by the torch, as well as several other cities chosen for their international importance.
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The relay was the first time the Olympic flame had travelled to Africa, India and South America. The flame was transported from country to country aboard a specially-equipped Boeing 747 leased from Atlanta Icelandic (Registration TF-ARO) called Zeus. On board the flame was carried and burned continuously in specially modified miners lamps.
Greece (part 1)
On March 25, 2004, the Olympic Flame was ignited at Olympia, Greece, site of the ancient Olympic Games. The following was the route in Greece before the beginning of the international leg:
International leg
The International Leg of the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay officially began on June 4, 2004, when the flame touched down in Sydney, Australia, host city of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
The International Leg of the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay officially concluded on July 8, 2004, just over a month after it began its global journey and just over a month before the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony on August 13, 2004.
Greece (part 2)
After visiting Cyprus, the Greek Leg of the Torch Relay resumed on July 9, 2004, with the flame touching down in Crete in the city of Heraklion. During the Greek Leg of the relay, the torch also made a cursory stopover in Albania when the torch was carried through a lake on the Greek-Albanian border. The route was the following one:
Aftermath
The International Olympic Committee has indicated that, due to the success of the 2004 run, they might sanction a global circumnavigation of the flame before every succeeding Olympics. However, those plans were abandoned in March 2009 due to the protests in the international leg of the torch relay of the 2008 Summer Olympics (with an exception made for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games).
The torch relay proved instrumental in the recognition of the importance of trending on Twitter by Abdur Chowdhury during a train journey, a usage which eventually expanded to other Internet platforms.