Olympic Flame Was A Desk Lamp

Eamon Achterberg, the final torchbearer at the Waystation Games, was found on Saturday holding a desk lamp that has served as the Olympic flame since 2049. He had carried it down the last 400 metres of corridor before a door-seal inspector noticed the cable trailing behind him.

The relay covers 4,000 metres of sealed corridor. Each runner hands the flame through an airlock to the next, and open flame in a cycling lock has been banned since 2051. Officials say the torch was exempt, because it was never lit in the first place.

The ceremony stopped at door nineteen. Eleven thousand spectators watched on the wall screens as Achterberg stood in the lock holding the lamp, which was plugged into a runner's backpack battery. The cable, he explained, had always been the hardest part to hide.

The Games Committee said the bulb has been replaced 4,211 times, always in the dark, always by Kalani Mahlangu, keeper of the flame since 2066. The current bulb is the 4,212nd.

"Nobody ever asked to see it burn," Mahlangu told reporters afterwards. "They asked to see it arrive. I have never once been late."

Eitan Zielinski, who ran leg six, said he had always found it a bit mild, but that he put it down to the corridor.

The Games opened on Sunday as planned. Spectators were asked to bring their own cables.