Greece In keeping with tradition, the flame was lit at the Temple of Hera in the Greek city of
Olympia on March 30, 1996. First Lady
Hillary Clinton headed the American delegation at the lighting ceremony. Greek long jumper
Kostas Koukodimos was the first torchbearer. Over 800 people carried the torch a distance of across Greece, the most extensive in the history of the Games, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1896 Olympics in Athens. The flame was carried through Athens by representatives of every country which had hosted an Olympic Games in the past century.
United States ' specially painted
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 that was used to transport the flame from Athens to Los Angeles., pictured as a flagbearer at the
1960 Summer Olympics, was the first torchbearer., the surprise final torchbearer, pictured in 2004 After burning in Athens for three weeks, HOC president Antonios Tzikas formally handed the flame to ACOG president Billy Payne on April 26. A lantern containing the flame was loaded onto
The Centennial Spirit, a specially painted
Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-11, at Athens'
Ellinikon International Airport early on the morning of April 27. The flight from Athens to
Los Angeles International Airport lasted 14 hours, departing Athens at 4 a.m. local time and arriving in Los Angeles by 9 a.m. local time. From the airport, the flame was carried in a helicopter to
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1984 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, for a nationally televised ceremony to mark the beginning of the relay. ACOG attempted to arrange for the nude statues in front of the Coliseum to be covered during the event, but the statues ultimately remained uncovered. Billy Payne lit the first torch from the lantern before passing it to
Rafer Johnson, who had lit the cauldron in 1984, to run the first leg. Johnson passed the flame to Gina Hemphill Tillman, granddaughter of
Jesse Owens, who had been the first torchbearer on the 1984 relay. Tillman passed it on to swimmer
Janet Evans. Leaving the Coliseum, the torch was carried through Los Angeles to
Santa Monica Pier, then along the Pacific coast. At one point in Los Angeles, the torch was carried by
Robert Zemeckis. The first day of the relay continued until 4:59 a.m., when the run stopped for an hour in
Huntington Beach before continuing on its way to
San Diego. and 1936 Olympic athlete
Kenny Griffin in
Carlsbad. In
Kingman, Arizona, the route briefly followed the famous
Route 66, before exiting the state at the
Hoover Dam. It was carried across the rim of the dam by
Martha Watson. That morning, to mark the torch's passage, the world's largest U.S. flag was unfurled for the first time across the dam's wall, but it had to be taken down due to high winds before the torch arrived. The relay proceeded into
Las Vegas, Nevada, where it was announced that the casinos would briefly dim their lights to create a more dramatic entrance for the torch, but did not ultimately do so. Cyclist Harley Sheffield dropped and broke the torch while riding with it across the
Tacoma Narrows Bridge, an incident which received so much publicity that Sheffield was featured as a guest on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Dana Lough, a
wheelchair-using torchbearer in Seattle, sustained a serious head injury when her chair was improperly secured on a shuttle bus transporting runners after the relay. The torch then passed through Idaho on its way to
Salt Lake City, Utah, which was awarded the
2002 Winter Olympics shortly before the route was announced.
Bart Conner and
Nadia Comăneci, Olympic gymnasts who had recently married, carried the torch in Salt Lake City. After crossing Wyoming, the relay visited
Denver, Colorado and
Colorado Springs, home of the
United States Olympic Committee headquarters and the
U.S. Olympic Training Center. At
Julesburg, the torch was picked up by riders of the
National Pony Express Association, who carried it (along with a bag of commemorative letters addressed to patients at a children's hospital) on horseback to
St. Joseph, Missouri. Like the original
Pony Express, the riders traveled non-stop for 58 hours straight, from 9 p.m. on May 13 to 7 a.m. on May 16. While relay organizers had chosen this particular segment of the historic Pony Express route because it mostly ran alongside modern roads which could accommodate the caravan of support vehicles, road conditions forced them to separate from the torch-bearing riders for some stretches. At
Rock Creek Station near
Endicott, a horse was spooked and threw its rider, causing another torch to be broken. The torch traveled southward from St. Joseph into
Kansas City, Missouri, then across Kansas and Oklahoma. The relay route, as initially announced, included a stop in
Yale, Oklahoma, which organizers described as the "birthplace" of
Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was actually born in
Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, near the town of
Prague, and about 50 miles away from Yale, where Thorpe lived briefly as an adult. Residents of Prague protested the decision and asked for the torch to be rerouted to their town. The relay organizers resisted these requests at first, saying that the route had already been carefully planned and could not be significantly altered, but ultimately agreed to visit both Yale and Prague. In
Oklahoma City, the torch was carried by first responders to the
Oklahoma City bombing a year earlier. Between
Waco and
Bryan, Texas, it was flown on a 1943
Stearman biplane. The torch rode on the historic
St. Charles Streetcar in
New Orleans. From New Orleans, the torch was transported mostly by rail through Mississippi and Arkansas, passing through
Memphis and roughly following the
Mississippi River northward. Starting from the
Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the torch was intended to board the
American Queen, the recently built river
steamboat which was the largest of its kind in history, to be transported up the Mississippi to
Hannibal, Missouri, best known as the boyhood home of
Mark Twain. The relay crossed Iowa and reached as far north as
Minneapolis in its zig-zagging route, before making another rail journey southeastward across Wisconsin to
Chicago, where it was estimated that over 500,000 spectators lined the streets. The torch proceeded through
Indianapolis, Indiana and
Louisville, Kentucky, where
University of Kentucky basketball coach
Rick Pitino carried it across the
George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge. Pitino's appearance was delayed due to a bomb threat made against the event, thought to have been made by a person angered by Pitino's recent decision to stay with the team rather than accept an offer to coach the
New Jersey Nets. A stop in
Wilmington, Ohio marked the official halfway point of the torch's 84-day journey.
Wendy's founder
Dave Thomas carried the torch in the
Columbus area. The
American Republic, an
iron ore-carrying
lake freighter, ferried the flame from
Philip A. Hart Plaza in
Detroit, down the
Detroit River and across
Lake Erie to the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland. A mule-drawn
packet boat was used to carry the torch down a short segment of the
Erie Canal in
Camillus, New York. On the steps of the
Massachusetts State House, the flame was passed to
Nancy Kerrigan. In
New York City, the torch was carried by
Katie Couric in a live segment on
The Today Show, then placed on a
Circle Line ferry which passed by the
Statue of Liberty on its way to
Jersey City, New Jersey. On its arrival in
Philadelphia, a torchbearer climbed the
Rocky Steps leading to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. In
Washington, D.C., the torch was met on the steps of the
U.S. Capitol by Georgia's congressional delegation, including
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. After
Gallaudet University president
I. King Jordan handed the torch to President
Bill Clinton, the flame rested for the night at the
White House. It was intended to burn in a cauldron on the White House lawn overnight, but due to a thunderstorm, it was kept in a lantern on the South Portico instead. The next morning, Clinton handed the torch to Olympic basketball player
Carla McGhee. Leaving Washington, D.C., for Virginia, the torch was carried across the grounds of
Mount Vernon by descendants of
George Washington and of a person who had been enslaved at the plantation. After crossing Virginia and North Carolina, the torch was hidden from view in the suburbs of
Greenville, South Carolina after the county passed a controversial resolution decrying homosexuality (see ). Olympic basketball player and coach
Pat Summitt brought the flame into
World's Fair Park in
Knoxville, Tennessee. Country singer
Billy Ray Cyrus carried the torch in
Hermitage. In
Oakville, Alabama, the hometown of
Jesse Owens, the passage of the torch coincided with the unveiling of Jesse Owens Memorial Park. Former Atlanta mayor
Andrew Young carried the torch across the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma, Alabama; Young had been among the organizers working in Selma when
Bloody Sunday occurred at the bridge in 1965. The relay route roughly followed that of the subsequent
Selma to Montgomery marches on its way to Alabama's state capital. The
Peregrine, a racing
sailboat, carried the torch across
Tampa Bay from
Tampa to
St. Petersburg. The next day, on the
Fourth of July, the flame was flown in a 1944
Short Sunderland flying boat seaplane from
Sarasota to the former seaplane terminal that had since become
Miami City Hall. An unlit torch was carried aboard
Space Shuttle Columbia during the
STS-78 mission, which landed at
Kennedy Space Center a few hours before the relay visited the site on its way to
Orlando. In
Jacksonville, the torch boarded a
Coast Guard Cutter which ferried it to a Coast Guard station near
Tybee Island, Georgia. A helicopter carried it from there to
Fort Pulaski National Monument, where it was placed on a replica of the schooner
America and sailed into the city of
Savannah. A smaller vessel captained by Olympic sailor
Hal Haenel brought it to the Waving Girl Landing along Savannah's
River Street, handing the torch to his sailing partner
Mark Reynolds. The ceremony marking the torch's entrance into the host state of Georgia was headlined by Billy Payne and Georgia governor
Zell Miller. The relay then followed a circuitous route within Georgia, leaving the state only once to briefly visit the
Ocoee Whitewater Center in Tennessee. The torch spent more time in Georgia than any other state, traveling nearly 24 hours per day, and visited 90 of its
159 counties. Billy Payne carried the torch at his
alma mater, the
University of Georgia in
Athens. The torch visited the site of
New Echota, the historic capital of the
Cherokee Nation before its forced removal from Georgia. A planned visit to the
Olympic Village on the
Georgia Tech campus on the morning of the opening ceremony was canceled to avoid disrupting preparations for the Games themselves, and because President Clinton was visiting the village on that same day.
Anti-gay resolutions controversy In August 1993, the County Commission of
Cobb County, Georgia approved a resolution which condemned "the
gay lifestyle" and stated that it was incompatible with the "community standards" and "family values" of the county. In response to the resolution, protestors called for Olympic organizers to move the volleyball preliminaries which had been scheduled to take place at the
Cobb Galleria Centre in Cobb County to another venue elsewhere. ACOG agreed to move the events to
Athens. When the torch relay route was later announced, it avoided Cobb County entirely, thus excluding the northwestern suburbs of Atlanta, including
Marietta and
Mableton, from the event. Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich, Cobb County's congressional representative, said of the decision that "the homosexual demonstrators blackmailed the Olympic committee". At the time the resolution was passed, the torch relay was already underway and was scheduled for a major celebration and overnight stop in Greenville on June 25 and 26. As a result, the relay through Greenville County was altered. Upon reaching the Greenville County line, the flame was returned to its lantern and driven in the back of a van to the Greenville city limits, and it could not be seen by those who gathered along the route. Inside the city of Greenville, the relay proceeded on foot as normal, although the flame's planned overnight stay at a
Holiday Inn outside the city limits was canceled. The next day, upon leaving Greenville city limits, the flame was concealed again until it reached the North Carolina state line.
Opening ceremony The relay culminated in the
1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, at midnight on July 19–20, 1996 in Atlanta's
Centennial Olympic Stadium. Four-time gold medal-winning discus thrower
Al Oerter carried the torch to the stadium, passing it to
Evander Holyfield. Holyfield was then joined by
Voula Patoulidou and the pair passed the flame to American swimmer
Janet Evans, the penultimate torchbearer, who carried it around a lap of the track and up a long ramp leading towards the northern end of the stadium. The identity of the final torchbearer had been kept secret and was only revealed when Muhammad Ali appeared at the top of the ramp. Ali, who had won boxing gold as an 18-year-old at the
1960 Games in Rome and later developed
Parkinson's disease, lit a mechanical torch which then travelled along a wire, lighting the cauldron at the top of a tower. His appearance has been referred to as being one of the most inspiring, poignant, and emotional moments in Olympic history. ==Route in the United States==