Buenos Aires, July 5. The Youth Olympic Flame will be lit by the sun’s rays on Tuesday, July 24, during a ceremony in Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium and will arrive in the city of Buenos Aires the following day, announced the Buenos Aires 2018 Organising Committee on Thursday.
During the first stage, the flame will visit a series of cities in the province of Buenos Aires in a lantern while carrying its message about Olympism’s transformative power to create a better world.
This hope will be represented by the #UnitedByTheFlame campaign that will invite social media users to carry their own digital flame. The initiative, that is to be launched in the coming weeks, is part of the #UnitedBy concept created by the International Olympic Committee to promote the values of Olympism around the world.
The Torch Tour will officially kick off on August 5 when the sacred flame arrives in La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, and the first relay takes place.
In total the flame will travel 14,000 kilometres in an almost 60-day journey that will finish on October 6 at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires for the first Olympic opening ceremony to take place in a city centre and outside traditional stadiums.
The Buenos Aires 2018 Torch Tour will highlight Argentina’s cultural and geographical diversity as it travels through the northwest, northeast, Cuyo, Pampa and Patagonia regions.
In the same spirit, the concept of the logo for the Buenos Aires 2018 Torch Tour is based on the wish for the Games to be a space for union in diversity, multiculturalism and the common good.
In each city the relays will cover one kilometre with 10 torchbearers passing the sacred flame from torch to torch.
During the tour the flame will also visit some of the most iconic and touristic sites in Argentina such as Mar del Plata, the Flag Monument in Rosario, the waterfalls in Iguazu, and the Perito Moreno Glacier. No relay will take place in those locations.
The origin of the torch relay dates back to when the Ancient Greeks used to send messengers to the city-states to announce truces that allowed athletes and the public to attend Olympic competitions. From then on, the torch has been a symbol of peace and solidarity.
The schedule is the following:
Flame Visit
28/7 Quilmes, Lanús
29/7 San Isidro, Vicente López
30/7 Trenque Lauquen
31/7 Junín
1/8 San Miguel, Hurlingham, 3 de febrero
Torch Tour
5/8 La Plata (relay)
6/8 Mar del Plata (without relay)
7/8 Flag Monument in Rosario (without relay)
8/8 Paraná (relay)
11/8 Santa Fe (relay)
15/8 Puerto Iguazú (relay)
18/8 Corrientes (relay)
23/8 San Salvador de Jujuy (relay)
26/8 Salta (relay)
29/8 San Miguel de Tucumán (relay)
1/9 San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca (relay)
5/9 La Rioja (relay)
8/9 Mendoza (relay)
12/9 San Juan (relay)
16/9 Córdoba (relay)
20/9 Neuquén (relay)
23/9 Bariloche (relay)
30/9 Ushuaia (relay)
6/10 Buenos Aires (relay)
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