Name/Title
Torch, 2002 Salt Lake OlympicsEntry/Object ID
2020-004-0004.1Description
2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics torch, carried in the Olympics torch relay, which came through Lacey, by torchbearer, David G. Naber, who was from Lacey. This is numbered 081.
The torch is made of silvered metal, copper, and glass, designed by Axiom Design and manufactured by Coleman. The torch was modeled after an icicle and slightly curved to represent speed and fluidity, with a contrasting dull and polished finish on the handle to represent the meeting of modernity with the past. The handle is engraved with the motto of the games, "Light the fire within," and a raised emblem of the games appears near the top with the lettering "SALT LAKE 2002."Context
To promote the Games among the largest number of people possible in the United States, the relay passed through over 300 towns and villages in 46 states. The route included the previous Games host cities, Atlanta, Lake Placid, St. Louis, Los Angeles and Squaw Valley.
On 4 December 2001, after leaving Athens the previous day, the flame landed in Atlanta. At the Centennial Olympic Park, Muhammad Ali, who lit the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, lit the first torch on American soil. The former boxer then handed it to Peggy Fleming, the figure skating Olympic gold medallist at Grenoble in 1968. She ran the first leg of the relay with her coach Robert Paul, who had won the figure skating gold medal at the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley.
On 8 February 2002, at the Opening Ceremony, for the first time in Olympic history, an entire team, the winning US men’s ice hockey team from the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, lit the Olympic cauldron.Dimensions
Width
3-1/2 inLength
32-1/2 inRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
See related items: 2020-004-0004.2 (torch stand), 2020-004-0004.3 (torch instructions), 2020-004-00005.1-.4 (torch relay uniform) 2020-004-0006, (souvenir pennant), 2020-004-0007 (related documents).