End date: 18 February 1960, Blyth Memorial Arena, Squaw Valley (United States)
First torchbearer: Olav Nordskog, a young Norwegian skier
Last torchbearers: Kenneth Charles Henry, Olympic participant in speed skating (1948, 1952, 1956), gold medallist in Oslo 1952.
Number of torchbearers: More than 600
Recruitment of torchbearers: -
Distance: -
Countries visited: Norway, Denmark, United States
Colour: Silver
Length: 48.5 cm
Composition: Aluminium
Fuel: Bottled propane gas
Designer / Manufacturer: John Hench, Ralph Lavers / -
Route design and details
As for the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, it was a “symbolic Nordic” flame lit in Morgedal in Norway in the hearth of the house where Sondre Norheim, the pioneer of modern skiing, was born.
The flame was originally to have been lit in Olympia. However, the Hellenic Olympic Committee, informed a month before the Games, did not have enough time to organise a lighting ceremony. Instead, the Organising Committee looked to Norway.
After being transported by car to Copenhagen via Oslo, the flame is flown to Los Angeles. From there, the relay takes it through California to Squaw Valley.
On the day of the Opening Ceremony, the torch was carried by American skier Andrea Mead Lawrence. She was accompaned by eight members of the National Ski Patrol. The flame was passed to the last torchbearer, skater Kenneth Charles Henry, who did a lap of the ice in front of the Blyth Memorial Arena before lighting the cauldron in which the flame would burn throughout the Games.
