GAMES

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has laid a wreath at the memorial to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympics, in a simple ceremony amongst the olive groves here this evening.

The Olympic flame is on its way to Rio de Janeiro after a ceremony of grace, dignity and real emotion here today.

A global promotional campaign entitled “Together we can change the world” has been launched by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in an effort to communicate their vision of building a better world through sport.

Back in the early sixties, when it became known that high-altitude Mexico City would be staging the 1968 Olympic Games, the estimable but irascible Chris Brasher declared in The Observer: “There will be those who die...!”

The Rio 2016 Olympic flame is now well underway in its majestic progress across Greece before making for Brazil, but there is something about the surroundings in Ancient Olympia that make the start of the journey very special indeed. The lighting ceremony has the capacity to inspire many emotions, but for the athletes of the world it serves as the ultimate clarion call for the Games.