Olympic torch lit in Greece Athletes from Great Britain's leading universities compete in the Olympic stadium where the first athletics event is taking place in London on Saturday, May 5, 2012. OLYMPIA, Greece, May 10 (UPI) -- The Olympic flame was lit in a ceremony in Greece Thursday, starting a 78-day journey that will conclude with the opening of the Summer Olympics in London. The flame was lit using the sun's rays focused by a parabolic mirror at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, about 100 miles west of Athens near the Greek west coast. The flame was used to light the first torch of the relay. That was held by Spyros Gianniotis, a British-born Greek open water Olympian who passed the flame to Alex Loukos, a London 2012 young ambassador. The ceremony began an eight-day journey for the flame across Greece, which is to end at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896. One day later, May 18, the Olympic flame is to be flown to the Culdose airbase on the southwestern tip of Cornwall. The British leg of the torch relay is to begin May 19 at Land's End. The flame is to be carried through more than 1,000 villages, towns and cities in the United Kingdom. The route covers about 8,000 miles. The 2012 Olympics are to run July 27-Aug. The torch relay is sponsored by Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung.