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2012 Summer Olympics torch relay

The 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from 19 May until 27 July, prior to the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The torch bearer selection process was announced on 18 May 2011.[1]

Host city

London, United Kingdom

Greece, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man

12,800 km (8,000 miles)

8,000

10 May 2012

27 July 2012

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby

As well as touring the United Kingdom the schedule included the three crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and also the Republic of Ireland.

The three Olympic values – respect, excellence and friendship.

The three elements of the – faster, higher, stronger.

Olympic motto

The three hosted by the United Kingdom (1908, 1948 and 2012).

Olympic Games

The tri-vision of the – sport, education and culture.

2012 Summer Olympics

Turnout[edit]

Around 3,000 people were said to have been at Land's End to send the Torch on its way on Day 1, while Day 2 saw police deliberately limit crowds at the Shaldon Bridge at Teignmouth, Devon, to around 7,000, while the various stages through Plymouth were said to have attracted 55,000. [19] Photographs similarly show crowds up to 10 deep on each side of the road in central Falmouth (Day 1). Arriving in Wales for the first time on Day 8, the torch was reported as being greeted by 25,000 in Caerphilly. Numbers lining the route in no way abated as the days passed, with Bowness by Lake Windermere, for example, mustering 5,000 on Day 34; Skegness, Lincolnshire (a town of less than 20,000 people) featuring 5-deep crowds along both sides of its streets on Day 40; and Maidstone on Day 62 playing host to an estimated 40,000-strong crowd. As the relay reached London, the numbers of people turning out were still more exceptional, with much of Oxford Street featuring crowds 13-deep on both sides (on Day 69). That day ended with a 60,000-strong crowd for the evening events in Hyde Park. The Police Service gave an estimate for the UK as a whole of some 12 million people lining the route for the torch.

Controversy[edit]

In early June, as the torch relay entered its third week, it was revealed that many of those selected to carry torches on the relay were corporate executives with commercial ties to Olympic sponsors.[20][21]

End of relay[edit]

The end of the relay took place in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.


The torch arrived aboard a speedboat piloted by David Beckham, via the Limehouse Cut. Steve Redgrave received the flame from young footballer Jade Bailey,[58][59] the torchbearer on the boat, and carried it into the Olympic Stadium.[38] Then Redgrave handed the torch to the seven young athletes, each one nominated by an athlete. The athletes then each applied their torch to one of the 204 petals, which then lit and converged to create the cauldron, which was designed by Thomas Heatherwick.

2012 Summer Paralympics torch relay

Real Relay

episode of EastEnders in which the torch was carried (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g24q1nu-hg4)

Episode 4466

Official website

based on OpenStreetMap

Full-screen interactive map

BBC's coverage of the torch relay (includes full route)

taken from the BBC's tracking feed

Torch relay's GPS route