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07th Oct 2013

Video: Russian security agent breaks tradition and relights Olympic torch with a Zippo

A Russian security agent saved the day yesterday with his trusty lighter after the Olympic flame was extinguished by high winds.

Oisin Collins

A Russian security agent saved the day yesterday with his trusty lighter after the Olympic flame was extinguished by high winds.

After arriving in Russia from Greece on a specially chartered flight yesterday, the Olympic flame finally began its four-month relay from Moscow to Sochi, in southern Russia, ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

The flame was handed over to the former Russian swimming champion Shavarsh Karapetyan, but as he ran through a tunnel leading into the Old Kremlin, high winds extinguished the flame.

Instead of relighting the torch off of the ‘back-up flame’, which was also lit by the ‘mother flame’ back in Greece, a Russian security agent stepped in with his trusty lighter.

It wasn’t exactly protocol, but who cares about tradition anyway?