Olympic flame ignited in ritual at Olympia

The Olympic flame was kindled Friday in a ceremony at the ancient birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Maria Pambouki, playing the high priestess of the sanctuary that once honored the Greek gods of Zeus and Hera, lit the flame from a clay urn after a heavy cloud cover at noon made it impossible to ignite the flame with the rays of the sun.

The flame in the urn had been ignited with the rays of the sun and a concave mirror during a rehearsal Monday as a precautionary measure against inclement weather.

A Japanese delegation of about 300, including Nagano Mayor Tasuku Tsukada, attended the ceremony at the sanctuary outside of Athens which has been plagued with cold weather and sleet for most of the week.

''This is the realization of a dream that began with our bid years ago,'' said Shoichi Washizawa, a senior official with the Nagano Chamber of Commerce who was also a member of Nagano's bid committee. ''This ceremony is the compilation of all of our work.'' (originally run December 19, 1997)

torch relay in Sapporo

The Olympic torch relay returned to Sapporo after a 26-year hiatus Tuesday, not as the goal this time, but as the starting point as one of three relay routes for next month's Nagano Olympic Winter Games.

Former Olympic silver medalist Akitsugu Konno kicked off the relay in Sapporo at 1:27 p.m. for the route that will wind through eastern Japan for Nagano. Konno, 53, won the silver medal in ski jumping at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics.

During a ceremony which began shortly after 1 p.m. in front of the Hokkaido prefectural government office building, Hokkaido Gov. Tatsuya Hori lit the torch and handed it over to Konno.

The relay route in Sapporo is almost exactly the same as the torch relay route 26 years ago. The goal in Sapporo is set at the Makomanai outdoor stadium, the venue for the opening ceremony of the Sapporo Games. Earlier, the first leg of the nationwide torch relay began in a memorial peace park marking the site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in Japan's southern island prefecture of Okinawa.

With Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota and chief Nagano Games organizer Makoto Kobayashi in attendance, 16-year-old high school student Miwa Ishiki led a six-runner team as she set the Olympic flame off on its 1,150-kilometer journey to Nagano from the city of Itoman in Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost tip of Japan. (originally run January 6, 1998)

* Three Olympic torches ended their 32-day journey across Japan and were reunited into one Olympic flame Friday, the day before the Winter Games open in Nagano.

''The Olympic flame is a symbol of peace and hope,'' said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Antonio Samaranch, after transferring the combined flame to a small cauldron in a ceremony held at Central Square in Nagano.

''It reminds us that by working together we can build a peaceful and better world,'' he said.

Yuko Emoto, judo gold medalist in the 1996 Atlanta Games, U.S. figure skater Kristie Yamaguchi, winner of Olympic gold in Albertville in 1992, and Masae Nakamura (nee Kasai), member of Japan's gold-winning women's volleyball team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, ran the penultimate relay leg that ended at Central Square. (originally run February 6, 1998)