30

2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics Original Torch- RARE!

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia / Sports - Olympics Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,000.00 USD
2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics Original Torch- RARE!
Rare 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics official, original torch. The 2002 Winter Olympics torch relay was a 65-day run, from December 4, 2001, until February 8, 2002, prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics. The runners carried the Olympic Flame throughout the United States – following its lighting in Olympia, Greece, to the opening ceremony of the 2002 games. 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 December 4, 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 medalist 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. The torchbearers were chosen by the Organizing Committee and the relay partners (Coca-Cola and Chevrolet), each choosing one-third of the total number. A publicity campaign by the Organizing Committee invited Americans to submit the name of a person who was a source of inspiration in their lives. In all, more than 300,000 candidatures were received. Shaped like a stalactite, the torch symbolized winter sports. The silver ribbed body of the torch evoked the texture of the natural ice and rugged landscape of the American West.

The surface of the torch varied from the aged finish of the central part (representing the past) to the high-polish finish of the lower part (modernity). The point where these two surfaces met, where the runner held the torch, was a bridge between the past and present.

The torch was topped by a glass crown surrounding the flame and reflecting the motto for this edition of the Games, which was engraved on the handle: “Light the Fire within”. The Games emblem appeared on the front of the torch. The elements making up the torch also had a meaning: glass: winter and ice; old silver: the West, running water; shiny silver: the heart and speed of the athletes; and copper: fire, passion, the history of Utah.

Silver and bronze in color. Composed of silvered metal, copper and glass.
Approximately 33" long. For the first time, the cauldron was translucent. To fit in with the visual identity based on fire and ice, it contained jets of water spraying down the inside of the bowl, to create the watered silk look of a melting ice cube. The flame was lifted to the top of the glass and stainless steel structure by means of a manual mechanism. There, the flame burned more than 35 meters above the ground.
This actual torch was carried by a local resident of Los Angeles who was involved with the Olympics Organizing committee - the late Barry Levy.
Includes a 2002 Olympic Winter Games poster photo by Lori Adams-Peek. For authenticity purposes we can provide two photos of Barry Levy carrying the torch in the relay and holding it in a photo with a channel 7 newscaster on the beach. In this photo he is wearing an official Olympic Torch Relay hat. Please email to view these photos prior to bidding. Additionally the 2002 official Olympic Torch Bearer Plaque he received is being auctioned off separately in this auction.