Its 21 days left to the Olympic opening ceremony in Rio. And you might think that there’s plenty of time left till they start doing anything special. I know we did. But do you know that the Olympic flame was lit at the temple of Hera in Olympia already on 21 April 2016, the traditional start of the Greek phase of the torch relay? No? Then we’re all in the same boat.

On 27 April the flame was handed over to the Brazilian organizers at a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. A brief stop was made in Switzerland to visit the IOC headquarters and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne as well as the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The torch relay began its Brazilian journey on 3 May at the capital Brasília. And while this is all fun and games, we definitely have some questions regarding this journey, seeing how the torch have to be lit all the way. So we tried asking Google Maps, but we didn’t get any smarter at all.

“Sorry, we could not calculate directions from “Switzerland” to “Brazil”” OK? Going by plane is always possible I suppose, but I don’t know how they would get this torch through airport security, nonetheless have it inside a plane? I know I have some trust issues, so trusting that they would get a flaming torch over the sea when even Maps can’t give directions is something that sounds like it can’t be trusted.

But then some further research got us this amazing discovery.

I’m not sure if they swam all the way through the North Atlantic Ocean, but knowing they could have it under water explains all I need to know. They probably put it on a boat.

Nonetheless, the torch relay will visit more than 300 Brazilian cities (including all the 26 states capitals and the Brazilian Federal District), with the last part to be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, lighting the cauldron during the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony on 5 August.

 

We’re excited.