The flame that never went out: Savannah marks 30 years since the Olympic flame came through town

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Thirty years to the day, a flame lit in ancient Greece found its way down a cobblestone street in Savannah on its way to Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Games.

Philip Barker, editor of the International Society of Olympic Historians’ Journal of Olympic History, was part of the journey from start to finish and spoke with WTOC about what it meant.

The flame’s ancient origins

The flame is lit in Olympia, Greece, in a symbolic ceremony rooted in the history of the Games themselves.

“The sun comes down, it’s like with a magnifying glass when you’re trying to light a fire. The flame bursts into life,” Barker said.

The torch relay, however, is a more modern tradition. It began during the 1936 Berlin Games as a way to connect the modern Olympics to their ancient roots.

“There is something about that flame having come all the way from Greece, being passed from hand to hand, transported in lots of different ways,” Barker said. “It just gives that little connection to the ancient games and to the modern games.”

Savannah’s moment in the relay

The flame traveled down River Street in Savannah exactly 30 years ago. An estimated 100,000 people gathered from River Street to Forsyth Park to watch as Savannah native Michael Cohen brought the torch through town.

The Savannah Olympic Support Committee had a 55-person board of community leaders that oversaw every step of the Olympic flame’s arrival in Georgia, 10 days prior to the Atlanta Games.

“I can imagine the excitement in Savannah because, you know, in any town, small or big, the cynicism blows away when the Olympic flame comes,” Barker said.

Savannah’s Olympic experience took place remotely, in boating events held a mile out in the ocean.

Carrying the flame

Barker witnessed the 1996 lighting ceremony in Greece - an event where then-First Lady Hillary Clinton spoke - before carrying the torch himself through Greece’s Taygetus Mountains near Sparta in heavy rain.

“By the end, all the uniforms of the runners were see-through. Everybody looked suitably bedraggled, but the important thing was the flame never went out,” Barker said.

He said the relay’s most powerful moments came from the crowds watching along the route.

“You see the local people, somebody from their community is carrying the torch. And it means so very much to them to watch it pass. Only for a split second, because it’s gone in a flash,” Barker said.

Muhammad Ali and the Atlanta Games

The 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics opened with Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron at Centennial Olympic Stadium. The flame burned for 17 days in Atlanta, and for 30 years in the memories of everyone who saw it.

“People watched in silence and in awe,” Barker said. “That ultimately connected the flame with Olympia, with all the stuff that’s gone between - all the history of the games. That moment, to have a man who was acknowledged by everybody as the greatest lighting the flame - it’s hard to top such a moment.”

The Olympic flame is set to return for a relay across America in 2028 for the Los Angeles Olympics.