It is the enduring symbol of every Games – the Olympic flame that travels from Greece’s ancient Temple of Hera to each opening ceremony. London 2012’s flame, however, began its first journey in rather different surroundings – from the east London base of designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, via its building in Basildon, to a wind tunnel in Munich. There, according to its owners BMW, it was subjected to “all the conditions it might face in England in summer – wind, snow and rain”. Thankfully, it was never extinguished, although the tunnel – technically a “climatic tunnel” rather than merely a wind tunnel - can’t do hail, so claiming that the flame is impregnable may be an exaggeration.
The torch itself features 8,000 tiny perforated holes, symbolising the 8,000 runners who will each carry it about 300 metres on its journey around the UK, from Lands End to John O’groats and points between. It will travel on horseback, zipwire and steam train. While the tunnel can simulate winds of up to 160mph, even British wind is unlikely to get that strong. The torch has been tested in steady winds of 35mph and in gusts of up to 50mph. It has endured temperatures from -5C to 40C and humidity up to 40 per cent, and has also been taken to the peak of Mount Snowdon for good measure.
Among the many ambassadors working for the Olympic sponsors, Daley Thompson is one of the few who can claim to be a great British Olympian. The former decathlete – and then professional footballer – who held four world records and won two Olympic titles, travelled with BMW to see the tunnel. His name is often mentioned alongside that of Sir Steve Redgrave as a popular choice to light the flame in Stratford on July 27. But when asked about this, he’s coy.
“It would be an honour for anybody to do it,” he says, pointing out that in Australia in 2000, it was a competing athlete, Cathy Freeman, who lit the flame in Sydney.
“But if I had the choice of it,” he adds, “I’d probably pick Seb Coe to do it.” This is a tactful choice, because Thompson knows that as chairman of the London Olympics Organising Committee, Coe would not be allowed to light the flame. “He’s been as good an athlete as we’ve ever had, and he brought the Games here.” Meanwhile Coe, who has no say in the decision, favours Thompson.
The athlete has in fact already carried an Olympic Torch, in the relay in Sydney. He says the London 2012 torch is surprisingly lightweight, and notes that that’s just as well as one of the runners will be 100 when she takes part in the relay.
He says that since his competing days – he retired from athletics in 1992 – technology has changed sport in ways well beyond action replays and performance analysis. “Because there are so many more media platforms these days, and there seems to be this general hunger for celebrity anyway, people tend to get” – he pauses – “not necessarily more attention than they deserve, but definitely more than they need. I was glad I was doing something nobody had heard of – I was much more interested in doing well than having more followers on Twitter than the next man. I was much more interested in being the world’s best decathlete.”
He doesn’t agree that technological distractions have diminished any particular athlete’s performance. Indeed, he emphasises that personality, expressed in public through whatever means, is what gets athletes crucial public support: “People tend to like an athlete’s performance, but if you don’t get a feeling for the individual you’re not very emotive about them,” he says, acknowledging that he was always a conspicuous and sometimes controversial sporting character.
“There are lots of women tennis players, for instance, but because not many of them seem to have much personality, they’re interchangeable. You don’t have a feeling about them.”
Thompson, however, is certain about one thing – come wind or rain, the torch relay will get Britons excited about the run-up to the Olympics, and remind them of its scale: “Even if you’ve been involved in a World Cup, the Olympics is huge. Only the Games has the power to change communities,” he says.