CMA Passage

The Torch Runner of 1936
Although most modern audiences of the Olympics believe that the torch relay and the bringing of the important flame to the
opening games have been present since the modern Olympics began, the truth is that this part of the ceremony did not begin
until the 1936 games. Many athletes carried the flame from Greece, but only one brought the flame into the arena and lit the
cauldron.

Memoir of Siegfried Eifrig
       I remember August 1, 1936 as if it were only yesterday. I had been given the honor of bringing the Olympic flame into the
Olympic stadium for the 1936 Games. I had always been a good runner, and I had won many events throughout Germany.
Being asked to be the final runner with the Olympic Flame, however, was my greatest accomplishment. All I wanted to bring
to the Games was the nobility of athletic competition.
     There were 3,331 others before me that had carried the Olympic flame from Mount Olympia in Greece. They had run with the
flame through Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and finally Germany.
I would be the final runner. I would carry the torch through the tunnel and into the stadium and then run the track and climb
the huge flight of stairs to deposit the flame into the urn. I worried about those last set of steps. Would I be able to complete
the task? The opening ceremonies must be picture perfect, and I knew that I would be filmed as I completed my task.
     As I approached the stadium, I watched the flame at the top of my torch burn and urge me on. I entered the tunnel, and the
flame grew. I ran into the open air and witnessed a sea of flags, and the cheers from those in the stadium rose to fill the air.
There were so many waiting for me to climb the stairs that seemed to reach the sky. This could be done, and I would be the
one who was able to complete the flame’s journey.
     I took one last deep breath and started to climb. It wouldn’t be long until I reached the top, never once slowing my pace. I
offered my flame to the urn, and immediately the fire caught. I turned and greeted the audience as the Olympics of 1936
began!

The Olympic Flame

I once burned in a cauldron
On a mountain that touched the sky.
I was captured and carried
Down from my mountain.
It was honorable, I was told,
To leave your home.
I crossed lands that I had never seen,
Carried in the hands of thousands.
Strong winds leapt at me,
And I sputtered and sparked,
But I continued to live,
Embers floating behind me.

At last I entered a field,
Viewed by thousands,
And climbed back toward the sky,
A mountain made by man from concrete.
I was lowered toward an urn, my new home.
I grew and flowered, once again fully alive.