On Sunday, the 29^th, the Olympic flame was ignited. It will light up the 22^nd edition of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, next year. The Temple of Hera, in the ancient city of Olympia, Greece, was the stage for the most traditional ceremony of the Olympic Movement. (Watch the ceremony)

For each edition of the games, the Olympic flame is ignited with the Sun's rays, refracted in a parabolic mirror, in front of the Temple of Hera. The ritual has its origins in the history of Ancient Greece, whose gods of Olympus were honoured with perpetual flames. The ceremony, at the Olympic Games, symbolises the continuity of a movement of union and friendship between peoples which began with the Ancient Games.

Greek skier Ioannis Antoniou, 18, was chosen as the first person to receive the Olympic torch. After the ceremony, the torch will then make its journey through Greece and will be delivered to the Organizing Committee on 5 October in Athens, marking the beginning of the relay up to the Sochi 2014 opening ceremony on 7 February 2014.

Spacewalk

The Sochi 2014 torch relay programme includes a historic achievement: the Olympic torch will cross all boundaries of the planet and orbit it. The spacewalk will be led by two Russian cosmonauts on 9 November this year. Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky are already on the international space station since 26 September to wait for the torch’s arrival and carry it in its path in outer space.

In addition to space, the torch will also go to the bottom of Lake Baikal – the deepest and oldest on the planet; the Summit of Mount Elbrus and the North Pole, besides more than 2,900 cities in Russian territory. The journey is expected to take 123 days and it will cover more than 65 thousand kilometres. The final destination will be Sochi Olympic Stadium for the Games opening ceremony on 7 February 2014.