2004 Summer Olympics torch relay


The 2004 Summer Olympics Torch Relay took the Olympic Flame across every habitable continent, returning to Athens, Greece. Every city which had hosted, will host, or coincidentally elected to host the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics and the Youth Olympics was revisited by the torch, as well as several other cities chosen for their international importance. The main reason why the torch relay went around the world was to highlight the fact that the Olympic Games were started in Greece and in modern times have been held around the world and then took place in Greece in 2004.
The relay was the first time the Olympic flame had travelled to Africa and South America. The flame was transported from country to country aboard a specially-equipped Boeing 747 leased from Atlanta Icelandic called Zeus. On board the flame was carried and burned continuously in specially modified miners lamps.

Route in Greece (first phase)

March 25:
March 26:
March 27:
March 28:
March 29:
March 30:
March 31:
The International Leg of the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay officially began on June 4, 2004, when the flame touched down in Sydney, Australia, host city of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
DateMap

June 4: Sydney, Australia
June 5: Melbourne

June 6: Tokyo, Japan
June 7: Seoul, South Korea
June 8: Beijing, China
June 10: Delhi, India

June 11: Cairo, Egypt
June 12: Cape Town, South Africa

June 13: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
June 15: Mexico City, Mexico
June 16: Los Angeles, United States
June 17: St. Louis
June 18: Atlanta
June 19: New York
June 20: Montreal, Canada

June 21: Antwerp, Belgium
June 22: Brussels
June 23: Amsterdam, Netherlands
June 24: Geneva, Switzerland
June 24: Lausanne
June 25: Paris, France
June 26: London, United Kingdom
June 27: Madrid, Spain
June 27: Barcelona
June 28: Rome, Italy
June 29: Munich, Germany
June 30: Berlin
July 1: Stockholm, Sweden
July 2: Helsinki, Finland
July 3: Moscow, Russia
July 5: Kiev, Ukraine
July 6: Istanbul, Turkey
July 7: Sofia, Bulgaria
July 8: Nicosia, Cyprus

The International Leg of the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay officially concluded on July 8, 2004, just over a month after it began its global journey and just over a month before the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony on August 13, 2004.

Route in Greece (third phase)

July 9
July 10
July 11
July 12
July 13
July 14
July 15
July 16
July 17
July 18
July 19
July 20
July 21
July 22
July 23
July 24
July 25
July 26
July 27
July 28
July 29
July 30
July 31
August 1
August 2
August 3
August 4
August 5 :
August 6 :
August 7 :
August 8 :
August 9 :
August 10 :
August 11 :
August 12–13 :
After visiting Cyprus, the Greek Leg of the Torch Relay resumed on July 9, 2004, with the flame touching down in Crete in the city of Heraklion. During the Greek Leg of the relay, the torch also made a cursory stopover in Albania when the torch was carried through a lake on the Greek-Albanian border.

Aftermath

The International Olympic Committee has indicated that, due to the success of the 2004 run, they might sanction a global circumnavigation of the flame before every succeeding Olympics. However, those plans were abandoned in March 2009 due to the protests in the international leg of the torch relay of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The torch relay proved instrumental in the recognition of the importance of trending on Twitter by Abdur Chowdhury during a train journey, a usage which eventually expanded to other Internet platforms.