The Olympic Torch, From 1936 to 2010

Now that the 2010 Olympics are over, I feel like I have a void in my day. Sitting down each night to watch the competition – especially to follow local athletes – was something I really looked forward to. No that it is over, I feel a little… bored. Dare I say I miss Bob Costas and Dick Button? Alright, that might be taking it a bit too far.

To fill the Olympic void, I’ve spent the last two nights poking around the web reading lots of post-Vancouver commentary and looking into past and future games. One of the cooler things I’ve stumbled upon is an interactive flash timeline of Olympic torches. It is very well done and I’ve wasted a good amount of time playing around with it. Images of each torch, starting with Berlin’s 1936 torch, are presented in chronological order and when you mouse over them it zooms in and provides you with some information about that year’s Olympics and the torch design. Interesting to see the evolution of the designs over the year. From more traditional designs that actually resemble torches… to some of the more modern designs, like this year’s Vancouver torch, which looked kind of weird to me.

I think my personal favorite was the Nagano torch.

You can view the presentation here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/09/sports/olympics/0209-torches-graphic.html