On the Scene: Celebrating Muhammad Ali Olympic Legacy

(ATR) The U.S. flag shares the stage with the Olympic flag at the memorial for Muhammad Ali in Louisville, Kentucky.

The 1960 heavyweight gold medalist died one week ago. He was buried today in his hometown and exalted in a three-hour memorial service. He was 74 when he was felled by toxic shock after going to a hospital in Arizona where he lived.

IOC President Thomas Bach led a delegation of his colleagues from the U.S. to the service, IOC members Anita DeFrantz and Larry Probst, who is also U.S.Olympic Committee president.

Bach says that Ali’s lighting of the caldron at the 1996 Games "was his greatest Olympic moment".

He tells Around the Rings Ali displayed courage and provided inspiration by taking part in the lighting despite the advance of Parkinson’s disease that had afflicted him since the 1980s.

"For such a man who was always so proud of his physical abilities to expose the affliction, to give hope to people, this is something that transcends sport.

"Winning an Olympic gold medal is one thing, but sending such a message is different. This is Olympic values at their best," says Bach.

DeFrantz presented an Olympic flag to Ali’s widow Lonnie after the service at a reception at the Muhammad Ali Center. Bach was supposed to do the honor, but with a late start to the service,which lasted an extra hour, he had to leave Louisville after the memorial to make a flight to Beijing. Nonetheless, Bach spoke by phone to Lonnie Ali from the airport during the reception, via the phone ofJanet Evans.

Evans, the U.S. swimming great whose final Olympics were in Atlanta, was the next to last person to carry the torch in 1996, relaying the flame to Ali.

.

"It was certainly the greatest honor of my Olympic career. It inspired me to watch him light it – to stand there with his courage and grace and light that Olympic flame," Evans tells Around the Rings.

"It was a powerful experience for me, mostly because at that age it was my third Olympics and I loved to win and winning seemed to be the most important thing," she recalls, a 24 year old at the time.

"To stand there next to him in that moment, it was eye-opening for me – it was an epiphany for me. Made me realize that sure, it’s great to win, but it’s bigger than that. I think that’s what he represented to so many of us," she says.

"I was so in the moment, to just make sure it all went well. But I realized as soon as that stadium started shaking and they were chanting his name-- Ali! Ali! Ali! It was that moment for me – I knew. I knew. And I understood.

Evans says she didn’t know she would relay the flame to Ali until the night before the ceremony. And the two did not meet until the actual event.

"I did not practice with Ali. We both practiced separately. And then I only saw him ‘til then. I think it went well," says Evans.

In his reflections on the giant shadow cast by Ali, the IOC president noted that finding another Olympian of similar stature may be impossible.

"This is not a question of finding or educating. This comes from the personality inside," Bach tells ATR.

Ali’s personality and style makes him number-one in the annals of the sport says Tom Virgets, a USA Boxing leader who represented AIBA president C.K. Wu at the Ali memorial.

Virgets tells ATR boxing needs a new personality like an Ali, especially for the U.S.

"In my mind, if we're going to get boxing back in the United States to -- you know, like the era of like an Ali - we need a champion - a heavyweight champion from the United States. We have to have a heavyweight champion in the United States who is dominant for the sport to resurrect itself."

After the Atlanta Olympics, Ali reprised his caldron lighting talent in December 2001. Returning to Atlanta he lit a smaller caldron to signify the launch of the torch relay for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

In 2005 he traveled to Singapore to lend his support to the New York City bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, even though Parkinson’s had taken away his voice.

Muhammad Ali’s last appearance at an Olympics came in 2012 when he was one of the flagbearers for the Olympic flag during the opening ceremony of the London Games.

Written and reported in Louisville by Ed Hula.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.