On October 7, a grandiose Olympic torch relay started in Russia. The relay promises to be the largest in the history of the Olympic Games and will cover 83 regions of the country. This event will be attended by 14,000 torchbearers. Who is one of them, and how are those selected who will be entrusted with a responsible task - to carry the Olympic flame?
The Olympic Torch Relay is a great sporting event, without which no Olympic Games are inconceivable. The Olympic flame is a symbol of peace, friendship, purity and the struggle for victory. The fire is solemnly lit in Olympia, after which it goes on a trip to Greece and from there it goes to the host country of the upcoming Olympics, in our case, to Russia.
The honor to carry the Olympic flame must be earned
There are several main requirements for torchbearers:
- Age from 14 years old.
- Supporting the basic principles of Olympism: Excellence, Respect, Friendship.
- The presence of achievements, which are not ashamed to tell others.
- Ability to inspire people to new achievements.
- Leading a healthy lifestyle.
- Interest in the 2014 Olympic Games.
The main partners of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Flame Movement are Coca-Cola, INGOSTRAKH and Russian Railways. Each of them selected their torchbearers. On the official websites of Coca-Cola and INGOSTRAKH companies, everyone could fill out an application form, in which they had to tell about themselves and their achievements. The best applicants were selected by open user voting on the companies' websites, after which the questionnaires were evaluated by an independent jury.
Russian Railways, in turn, distributed half of the "free seats" between its own employees and honored veterans, as well as representatives of sponsored companies, sports and educational institutions. The other half of the torchbearer nominees were entrusted to be chosen by the local authorities of each region. All nominations are finally approved by the Sochi Organizing Committee.
Honorary Torchbearers
Considering the above requirements, it is not surprising that many famous athletes, artists, politicians, and public figures were included in the honorary list of torchbearers. So to open the first stage of the relay, which took place in Moscow, the honor fell to the Olympic champion in synchronized swimming Anastasia Davydova. Vladislav Tretyak, Ivan Urgant, Irina Rodnina, Svetlana Khorkina, Ilya Averbukh, Dima Bilan, Igor Vernik, Iosif Kobzon, Konstantin Tszyu, Svetlana Masterkova, Gennady Onishchenko, Andrey Malakhov and many others also ran his stage in Moscow.
In St. Petersburg, among famous people taking part in the relay, runner Natalya Antyukh, figure skater Elena Berezhnaya, football player Alexander Kirzhakov, wrestler Alexei Mikhin. In Omsk - gymnast Evgenia Kanaeva. In Yaroslavl - hockey player Andrei Kovalenko, the first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. In Volgograd - athlete Yulia Zaripova, honored coach Evgeny Trofimov. In Smolensk - hammer thrower Olga Kuzenkova, swimmer Ivan Kassin, biathlete Nadezhda Talanova. Each city of Russia has its own torchbearers.
