Greeks Revel in Torch Lighting. Perhaps the real talent the Greeks have for the Olympic torch lighting is making every one seem like an unforgettable, sacred, once-in-a-lifetime event featuring high priestesses instead of something they stage every two years. With actresses. The sacred day (again!) for the London Olympic torch came Thursday, with the usual ceremony in ancient Olympia, lighting the torch from the eternal Olympic flame. According to The Guardian, the priestesses were in high form and there was a white dove and tears. The torch flame also blew out in the wind, but no matter. "We always have two or three in reserve," said Tassos Papachristou, the head of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. On hand were the usual Greek and Olympic dignitaries and Sebastian Coe, head of the London organizing committee. The torch relay begins in Olympia for every Olympics and will wind through Greece before being flown to Great Britain for a relay that will cover 8,000 miles of that country. It will culminate in lighting the caldron at London's Olympic stadium at the Opening Ceremony. Spyros Gianniotis, a Greek world champion swimmer, was the first torch bearer in Olympia. There will be more than 8,000 more like him. The actual torch relay was predated by the beginning of the debate over who would light the caldron. That is one event that's never the same.