ALI AND THE OLYMPIC FLAME: 25 YEARS LATER
SHORTLY before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, I was on the telephone with Muhammad Ali.
“Will you be going to the Olympics?” I asked.
“I can’t tell anyone,” Ali responded. “It’s a big secret.”
From this, I surmised that Muhammad was in fact going to Atlanta and that, most likely, he would be lighting the Olympic cauldron.
The lighting of the cauldron is the highlight of the opening ceremony at each Olympiad. A torch is lit in Olympia, Greece. The flame is transported in relay fashion to
