MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. The Lighting the Flame ceremony for the 25th Winter Olympic Games will take place in Ancient Olympia on November 26. The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The event will take place from February 6-22, 2026.
TASS Factbox editors have compiled key facts and figures about the Olympic Flame.
The ritual of lighting the Olympic Flame dates back to the ancient Olympic Games in Greece. It is a reminder of the legend of titan Prometheus, who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to human beings as a gift. During the ancient Olympic Games, the Flame was kept burning in the sanctuaries of Zeus, Hera and Hestia, located in Olympia (a small town in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece).
The Olympic Flame, symbolizing peace and unity, is one of the main ceremonial elements of the modern Olympic Games. The modern tradition was revived in 1928, at the 9th Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), when the Olympic flame was for the first time lit by an employee of a local electric company in the cauldron of the Marathon Tower at the main stadium. Four years later, the ceremony took place during the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles (California, the United States).
