The 2008 Olympic Torch Relay was held ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics . The torch, lit at Olympia on March 24 , covered about 135,000 kilometers and traveled to 21 countries on 5 continents.
This relay was the last one, since in 2009 the IOC canceled the world relay, retaining only the movement of the torch lit in Olympia and across the territory of the state hosting the next Olympic Games [1] [2] [3]
Relay route
International
| date | City |
|---|---|
| March 25 |  Olympia |
| 30th of March | Athens |
| March 31 |  Beijing |
| April 2 |  Alma-ata |
| April 3 |  Istanbul |
| 5th of April |  St. Petersburg |
| April 6th |  London |
| April 7th |  Paris |
| April 9th |  San Francisco |
| April 11th |  Buenos Aires |
| April 13th |  Dar es Salaam |
| 14th of April |  Muscat |
| April 16th |  Islamabad |
| April 17th |  New Delhi |
| April 19th |  Bangkok |
| The 21st of April |  Kuala lumpur |
| April 22 | Jakarta |
| April 24th | Canberra |
| 26 April | Nagano |
| April 27th | Seoul |
| April 28th | Pyongyang |
| April 29th | Ho Chi Minh City |
| April 30 | Taipei (canceled) |
Special Administrative Regions of the PRC
| date | City |
|---|---|
| May 2 | Hong Kong |
| May 3 | Macau |
Mainland China
| date | Provinces | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| May 4 - 6 | Hainan | |
| May 7 - 10 | Guangdong | |
| May 11 - 13 | Fujian | |
| May 14 - 16 | Jiangxi | |
| May 17 - 18 | Zhejiang | Relay paused in memory victims of the Sichuan earthquake |
| 22nd of May |
Olympic flame in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg became the only Russian city entrusted with the right to host the Olympic torch relay [4] . The relay race began at 10:30 on Victory Square and ended on Palace Square at 15:00, where a symbolic bowl was set up, lit from the torch. The relay route passed through St. Isaac's Cathedral , near the Peter and Paul Fortress and the cruiser Aurora, and along the Liteiny Bridge [5] .
Athletes such as boxer Nikolai Valuev , footballer Andrei Arshavin , skier Lyubov Yegorova , speed skater Svetlana Zhurova and athlete Galina Zybina took part in the torch relay. In addition, the first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova , People’s Artist of Russia Alisa Freindlikh , VTB Board Chairman Andrei Kostin , OCD President Leonid Tyagachev , PRC Ambassador to Russia Liu Guchan [6] , journalists Nikita Gulin and Dmitry Guberniev , president “ Euroset " Evgeny Chichvarkin , TV presenter Nikolai Drozdov and the master of the game" What? Where? When? » Alexander Druz [7] .
It was planned that the head of Sberbank German Gref [8] would also take part in the relay, however, he refused this offer, and instead the ocean scientist Arthur Chilingarov [9] carried fire.
Protests
Many stages of the relay were accompanied by protests by protibetan and human rights organizations against the repression of the Chinese authorities in Tibet .
The first protest rallies along the baton were to be held by the Yabloko party in St. Petersburg [10] , but already at its beginning the riot police and police arrested all the picketers. During the stage in Paris, the organizers had to extinguish the fire 3 times due to direct attacks on torchbearers. Similar demonstrations took place in London , San Francisco and Buenos Aires . Peaceful protests took place during the fire relay in Delhi and Bangkok , and the captain of the Indian national football team Baichung Bhutia refused to carry the Olympic torch for political reasons [11] .
See also
Olympic Games Boycott
Notes
- ↑ IOC canceled the global Olympic torch relay . // lenta.ru (March 27, 2009). Date of treatment November 4, 2013.
- ↑ World Olympic Torch Relay is canceled . // mhealth.ru (March 27, 2009). Date of treatment November 4, 2013.
- ↑ The Olympic torch relay will no longer be held . // krsk.sibnovosti.ru (03/28/2009). Date of treatment November 4, 2013.
- ↑ St. Petersburg will take the baton of the Olympic flame
- ↑ Olympic fire will be carried through the streets of St. Petersburg by Arshavin and Valuev
- ↑ Olympic flame delivered to St. Petersburg
- ↑ Friends and Drozdov will carry the Olympic flame in St. Petersburg
- ↑ The head of Sberbank will run with Olympic fire in St. Petersburg
- ↑ German Gref refused to participate in the Olympic torch relay
- ↑ Apple will hold a rally in support of Tibet in St. Petersburg
- ↑ Indian footballer refused to carry the Olympic torch