How are people chosen to carry the Olympic torch?
Two years before each Olympics, thousands, perhaps millions, of people compete to be Olympic torchbearers. The host city’s Olympic Games Organizing Committee selects the runners. They bring the flame to the games under the rules of the Olympic Charter (PDF), and each Olympic host has some leeway in how it picks torchbearers. For the 2006 Winter Games in Tornio, the torchbearer application requires that candidates live in Italy, be over 10 years old, and don’t hold political office between December, 2004 and February, 2006. This relay is relatively short — the flame started in Greece, was flown to Rome, and is being carried through all parts of Italy. Since the 1964 Winter Games, the torch has been lit in
