Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Olympics

Russia Struggles To Keep Torch Burning During Sochi Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic torch has been to the North Pole and traveled thousands of kilometers "on the relay that will end at the Sochi Winter Games in Russia in February," according to Ian Bateson of REUTERS. The problem is "the flame keeps going out." The longest torch relay in Olympic history "has been interrupted repeatedly since Putin launched it by hoisting the torch high outside the Kremlin" on Oct. 6. Yulia Latynina, a journalist who has been following the planned 65,000km (40,000-mile) relay, said that the torch -- made at a Siberian factory that produces submarine-launched ballistic missiles -- "has already gone out at least 44 times on its way to Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast." Latynina said, "A torch is a lot simpler than a missile -- it's a big gas lighter. Question: Do our missiles fly the way our torches burn?" Asked for comment, torch relay spokesperson Roman Osin said that "the number of times the torch had failed was within the normal range of error and that there had been similar incidents during the relays before the London and Beijing Olympics." The torches "were designed to withstand Russia's extreme weather conditions, including high winds and temperatures that can range from -40 C (-40 F) to 40 C (104 F)." It is no laughing matter for Putin, "who has staked a lot on a successful Games, but the torch has become the butt of jokes in Russia." On a roadside in Kolomna, a city outside Moscow, "residents greeted the torch by holding up lighters or striking matches" (REUTERS, 11/5).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2013/11/06/Olympics/Russia-Torch.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2013/11/06/Olympics/Russia-Torch.aspx

CLOSE