Russia to take Olympic flame to North Pole

Oct 25, 2011, 15:01 GMT

Moscow - Relay runners will for the first time carry the Olympic flame to the North Pole, Russian organizers of the 2014 Winter Games said on Tuesday.

'The most ambitous relay race' ever attempted with an Olympic flame will also take the fire into space and across a 5,000 metre mountain, Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of Russia's Olympic committee, told the news agency Itar-Tass.

A trip for the flame into space, possibly involving the International Space Station (ISS), will be a major challenge, as will be taking the fire to the summit of the 5,642-metre-high Mount Elbrus, Russia's tallest mountain and the highest peak in Europe, Chernyshenko said.

The Olympic flame is scheduled to arrive in Moscow from Athens in October 2013 and then to travel in relays just under 9,000 kilometres to the Pacific port Vladivostok.

In the remaining 123 days until the Olympic Games, running from February 7 to 23, the flame and its carriers will follow a route of more than 40,000km through all 83 major cities in Russia's regions, Chernyshenko said.

More than 30,000 volunteers will participate in the flame relay, he said.

The 22nd Winter Olympic games are scheduled to be held from February 7 to 23, 2014, in the Black Sea port city Sochi and in the adjacent Caucasian mountain resort Krasnaya Polyana.