A year before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, organisers revealed the torch, launching a countdown to Olympics ecstasy full of steely plans in a troubled and divided land.
Created by the zeitgeist designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the Olympic torch is sleek. At 1.5 kilogrammes, it stands 70 centimetres high, and is 10 centimetres wide in the middle and 3.5 centimetres at the bottom.
