ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a first-hand account of the experiences of an advance manager of the flame relay team of the Athens Olympic Games Organizing Committee (ATHOC). It covers the first and third segments of this relay within Greece and offers a focused description of the standard celebration events that punctuated the passage of the Olympic Flame. Organizational and managerial successes and failures shape the public experience of the Olympic Flame Relay (OFR), and the celebrations join the local and the global into performances of special demographic and symbolic power. The official explanation for the relay start date was that the national day of March 25 had to be celebrated, along with the opening date of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. At this point, a brief description of the relay celebrations in Greece should help the reader comprehend the size and the organizational complexity of the OFR.
