Greece -- Historic heart of the Olympics
Salt Lake will turn over the torch to Athens, host of the 2004 Games

OLYMPIA, Greece -- Tourists who flock to the site of the ancient Olympics usually find themselves standing on the smooth marble starting line embedded across the dirt stadium, just as the world's greatest athletes did nearly three millennia ago.

Many end up running across at least a portion of the 600-foot-long field, said to have been measured out by Hercules himself when the Greeks' greatest hero decided to stage a footrace after performing one of his mythical labors.Requires Adobe Acrobat.

Cheered on by other members of their tour groups, the runners must feel, if only for a moment, the power of a place that stood for more than 1,100 years as both a testing ground for physical strength and as a sanctuary to worship the gods and goddesses of the time.

The broken stone columns and walls that have fallen to their foundations, leaving only barely recognizable outlines of gymnasiums, temples and other buildings, are more than just debris scattered across a lush river valley surrounded by wooded foothills.

They're a reminder of the origins of the modern-day Olympics, of a time long before scandals and sponsors seemingly became more important to organizers in Salt Lake City and future host cities, including Athens, than crowning the fastest runner, the highest jumper, the strongest competitor.

Olympia to Utah

In about two years, organizers of the 2002 Winter Games expect to come to Olympia to participate in the now biannual ceremonies held beside the Temple of Hera to ignite the Olympic flame that burns throughout each of the Games.

The temple ruins are just steps away from the stadium's arched entrance.

Despite the setting, however, this ceremony was not part of the ancient Games. It wasn't until the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin that a symbolic flame was lit in Olympia.

Greek actresses portraying temple priestesses will use a concave mirror and the rays of the Greek sun to spark a flame that will be carried from Olympia to Salt Lake City by thousands of yet-to-be-named torchbearers.

Olympia's flame is set to arrive at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium on Feb. 8, 2002, for the opening ceremonies of the Salt Lake Games. The last torchbearer will use the flame to light at least one cauldron in the stadium that won't be extinguished until the Games' closing ceremonies on Feb. 24, 2002.