ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an anthropological study of the Olympic Flame Relay across 25 years, from Los Angeles 1984 through the aftermath of Beijing, punctuated by the announcement by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board in March 2009, that there would be no more global relays. On 4 August 2008, during the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Beijing, senior IOC member Richard Pound forcefully asserted that the global flame relay for the Beijing Games should never have taken place. Contemporary globalization theory has overwhelmingly focused on political economy and especially multinational corporations, but even within these domains, it has paid scant attention to the field of operational management. In the end, the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee (ATHOC) leadership, with IOC encouragement, largely acceded to this new model, citing the competencies of non- Greek operators necessary to pull off their ambitious global Olympic Flame Relay (OFR) plan.
