THE OLYMPIC MOTTO is “Citius, Altius, Fortius” — Latin for “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” To that motto, the International Olympics Committee seems to be adding a fourth word, “Minor” — “Smaller.”
The committee has decided that the days of sending the Olympic flame on a round-the-world tour before the opening of the quadrennial games are over. Stung by the disruptive demonstrations that dogged the flame-bearers before the 2008 Beijing games, the sports czars have decided that, from now on, the flame will tour only the country where the games are being held.
The official start of the new policy is the 2014 winter games and the 2016 summer games, but Canada has already decided that the torch for the 2010 Winter Olympics will be flown directly to Canada from Greece, and Great Britain has announced that the flame for the 2012 games in London will just tour within Great Britain. The days of the world-girdling torch run are over.
It seems like a small loss. For all the hype that has surrounded it, the torch run had become little more than a publicity device for the games, building an audience for later telecasts. But beneath the hype, the journey of the flame around the world had a meaning.
When the flame passed through Emporia in 1996 on its way to Atlanta, people crowded the streets to see it. The sight of the flame somehow connected Emporians to the people of the world who had watched it pass on the way to the United States.
Now the flame will be the property not of the world, but of whatever country hosts the games. As a result, the games may feel a little shrunken, a little parochial.
It is not surprising that the IOC has chosen to avoid controversy by limiting the flame’s itinerary. The committee has long been timid about any decision that might tarnish the sheen of the Olympic franchise.
But the flame is supposed to be the light of peaceful competition that bathes the world — not a proprietary trademark to be protected behind barricades. If it does not shine on the whole world, then it is just a glorified cigarette lighter.