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Flame fiascos

AFP, Athens
Whether its doves of peace being roasted alive or mechanical glitches leaving officials redfaced, the lighting of the
Olympic flame has proved memorable in more ways than one.
The climactic moment of all opening ceremonies is the moment when the treasured Olympic torch is carried into the arena at the end of a marathon trans-continental trek around the world.
At every Games, organisers try to conjure up new, ever more ingenious ways of using the torch to light the cauldron, where it will reside for the duration of the 17-day sporting extravaganza.
But recent history shows that the creative wizards responsible for
dreaming up the flame-lighting pyrotechnics might be wise to consider less elaborate methods.
The most grisly blunder came in Seoul in 1988 when dozens of doves released earlier in the opening ceremony alighted on the Olympic cauldron.
When the flame was lit, several of the birds were caught in the flames to the horror of watching spectators.
Four years later Barcelona organisers wisely saved the release of doves for the Olympic finale. At the flame-lighting, Spanish organisers recruited the services of an archer to fire a burning arrow into the cauldron.
At first glance the gimmick worked.
But a closer inspection revealed that the flame had lit automatically as the arrow missed its target, sailing yards wide.
Four years later and organisers of the Atlanta Olympics recruited the services of boxing legend Muhammad Ali to do the honours.
The appearance of the former world
heavyweight champion -- shaking uncontrollably through Parkinson's syndrome -- electrified the fans.
Yet the torch lighting itself was a flop.
A pulley used to haul the flame up to the torch bowl was tortuously slow and to make matters worse the cauldron itself -- derided as looking like a carton of McDonalds french fries -- burned and blackened during the Games.
Anticipation over who would light the flame for the 2000 Olympics reached fever pitch in Sydney.
The smart money proved to be spot on with Aboriginal athletics star Cathy Freeman being handed the honour in what was billed as a gesture of reconciliation between black and white Australia.
But Freeman's moment in the spotlight nearly fell flat, when a platform supposed to rise after the lighting of the flame got stuck.
Freeman was left standing gobsmacked for nearly three min
utes as staff scrambled to fix the problem, shouting contradictory advice into her earpiece.
"We've got a slight technical hitch. Nothing that can't be fixed," one voice tried to reassure her. "F---, f---, f---, f---," screamed another.
Freeman, the darling of the Games, revealed later that she had stifled the urge to burst out laughing but had stayed calm.
"When you put on a performance, they don't want you to make it obvious that things are going wrong," says Freeman.
"That's just common sense, really."
Just how Greek organisers plan to light the flame on Friday is a closely guarded secret. But it can be safely assumed that it won't involve a box of matches.