From Ancient Olympia to the opening ceremony, the Olympic flame has played a big part in the games for nearly a century.
The Associated Press has covered every modern Olympics, and that includes photographs of the Olympic flame both along the torch relay route and in the cauldron.
The Olympic flame was introduced at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. The torch relay began eight years later ahead of the 1936 Berlin games.
“In the context of the modern games, the Olympic flame is a manifestation of the positive values that man has always associated with the symbolism of fire,” the International Olympic Committee says.
The flame begins its life at a lighting ceremony in Ancient Olympia, where the original Olympics were held for centuries.
Over the years, the flame has played a bigger and bigger role at the opening ceremony, with the identity of the final torch bearer — often former Olympic greats from the host country — being the topic of feverish discussion.
Muhammad Ali, a gold medalist at the 1960 Rome Olympics, lit the torch at the 1996 Atlanta games. Four years later, Cathy Freeman lit the flame in Sydney and became the only person to light a cauldron and win a gold medal in the same games.
One of the most memorable lightings came at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo shot a fiery arrow over the top of the cauldron, igniting the gases from within.
The torch relay for the postponed Tokyo games begins Thursday, but don’t expect to know the name of the person who light the cauldron on July 23 at the opening ceremony until moments before it happens.
And when it does, the AP will be there to document it.
(File Photo/AP/Kevin Frayer)
Australian runner Cathy Freeman stands under the Olympic torch after lighting the flame at the opening ceremonies for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
(File Photo/AP)
Runner Paavo Nurmi of Finland lights the Olympic flame from the Olympic torch during the 1952 opening ceremony in Helsinki, Finland.
(File Photo/AP)
The Olympic cauldron rises in this multiple exposure photo (left) after Nikolas Kaklamanakis (right) lit it during the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The photo at left is a single frame time exposure interrupted at six intervals while the Olympic cauldron rises after being lit.
(File Photo/AP/Michael Probst)
Boxing legend Muhammed Ali lights the Olympic flame during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony in Atlanta.
(File Photo/AP)
Runner Guenther Zahn stands near the Olympic flame he lit above the Olympic Stadium on Aug. 26, 1972, during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
(File Photo/AP/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jorge Alberto Oliveira Gomes lights the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
An arrow carrying the Olympic flame leaves the bow of Antonio Rebollo to light the Olympic Torch and open the XXV Olympic in Barcelona in 1992. (File Photo/AP/Dominique Mollard)
(File Photo/AP/Paul Sancya)
The Olympic cauldron is lit during the opening ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
(IOC via AP)
In this 1928 photo provided by the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic cauldron stands over the stadium in Amsterdam. The Olympic flame was introduced at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
(File Photo/AP)
The Olympic torch is lit Aug. 1, 1936, in Lustgarten, Berlin, where it was to be guarded by members of the Hitler Youth until it was brought to the Olympic stadium for the opening of the games in the afternoon. The torch relay was not always a fixture of the modern Olympics, which began in 1896. The relay tradition began with Germany’s 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
(File Photo/AP/Michel Lipchitz)
Pigeons fly around as the Olympic torch is lit during the opening ceremony in Seoul in 1988.
Gymnastics athlete Sandra Henderson (left) and track and field athlete Stephane Prefontaine light the Olympic Flame during the 1976 Montreal Olympics. (File Photo/AP)