Rio 2016 Olympic Torch Reaching Final Destination in Greece: Panathenian Stadium

Three times Οlympic winner Pyrros Dimas lights the cauldron with the Olympic Flame in Acropolis of Athens. (Photo source: HOC)

After traveling Greece for six days, the Rio 2016 Olympic Torch arrived on Tuesday at the Acropolis in Athens.

(Photo source: HOC)

The cauldron at the Acropolis Museum was lit by the secretary general of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Manolis Katsiadakis. The sacred light had crossed the Acropolis in the hands of the Olympic champion Pyrros Dimas, Voula Kozomboli, Georgia Ellinaki, Aggeliki Karapataki, Evi Moraitidou, Virginia Kravarioti and Nikos Deligiannis. The President of the International Olympic Academy Isidoros Kouvelos carried the Olympic Flame at Dionysiou Areopagitou street.

The Olympic Flame will remain overnight at the Acropolis Museum until Wednesday, April 27, when it will be formally handed over to Brazil at a ceremony at the Panathenian Stadium in Athens, the venue for the historic 1896 Olympic Games that launched the modern Olympic movement.

By then the flame will already have passed through 450 hands.

The Olympic Flame was lit on Thursday, April 21, at Ancient Olympia, the home of the Olympic Games in southern Peloponnese and launched a week-long, 2,235-kilometre, torch relay through Greece.

Syrian refugee carries Rio 2016 Olympic Torch in Athens

HOC president Spyros Kapralos passes the Olympic flame to Syrian refugee Ibrahim Al-Hussein. (Photo source: HOC)

As part of the torch relay for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Syrian refugee Ibrahim Al-Hussein on Tuesday evening carried the Olympic flame through the Eleonas camp for refugees and migrants in Athens.

Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) president Spyros Capralos handed Ibrahim the flame and referred to the event “one of the greatest moments in my sport career.”

The symbolic gesture was intended to show solidarity with the world’s refugees at a time when millions are fleeing war and persecution worldwide.

Torchbearer Ibrahim Al-Hussein represented the world’s exiles and refugees (Photo: Rio 2016/André Naddeo)

Al-Hussein, a swimmer whose Olympic dream seemed to have ended when he lost part of his leg in a 2012 bombing, was surrounded by hundreds of refugee children as he carried the most iconic of Olympic symbols for a few hundred metres alongside an improvised football pitch.

The 27-year-old dedicated the historic moment to all refugees. “The opportunity I have had today has been unique and a great honour,” he said.

From Greece to Switzerland to Brazil

After the handover ceremony in Athens, the Rio 2016 Olympic torch will leave Greece and travel to Switzerland, for a special ceremony at the United Nations in Geneva on April 28. It will then go on display at the Olympic Museum in nearby Lausanne, home to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The torch will begin its Brazilian journey in the capital Brasília on May 3. Over the course of the following 95 days, some 12,000 people will carry the torch across the entire country. On the evening of August 5, after visiting every state capital and over 300 towns, the torch will arrive at the climax of the opening ceremony at the Maracanã Stadium, where it will be used to light the Olympic cauldron for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.