ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — The Olympic flame began its long journey to Sydney on Wednesday and immediately raised cries of outrage when the torch was passed to the daughter of an Australian IOC executive.
More than 20,000 people watched the solemn torch-lighting ceremony in the stadium in this 3,000-year-old town where the Olympics were born.
Cloudy skies prevented adequate sunlight from hitting a concave mirror that ignites the torch, which was held by a Greek actress portraying a high priestess. Instead, organizers used a flame kindled during a dress rehearsal Tuesday.
But controversy began almost from the very start of the flame's 16,600-mile trek to Australia for the Sept. 15-Oct. 1 Olympics.
The boomerang-shaped torch was lighted and given to Greek high-jump champion Lambros Papacostas, who passed it to the first Australian runner: Sophie Gosper, the 11-year-old daughter of International Olympic Committee vice president Kevan Gosper.
Sophie Gosper was a late replacement for 15-year-old Yianna Souleles, who traveled to Greece with her classmates from Sydney's St. Spyridon College. Souleles eventually carried the torch in a later stage.
That drew sharp criticism from Australians who saw the move as an example of the kind of cronyism that has tainted the Olympics ever since some IOC members were accused of receiving gifts by cities bidding to hold the games.
Three-time Olympian and swimming gold medalist Dawn Fraser said the choice of Sophie Gosper was "outrageous."
"Are the Greeks doing this because they have been told they may lose the Olympic Games?" she told Australia's Channel Seven news, referring to the organizers of the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Swim coach Lawrie Lawrence was also critical.
"It just seems to be one disaster after another, really," he said. "It may be perfectly innocent, but to the general public, and to me, there seems to be a bit of stench about it."
Gosper himself is under investigation by the IOC. He is accused of accepting excessive hospitality relating to a ski trip he and family took to Utah in 1993 at the invitation of the head of the Salt Lake City Olympic bid committee.
Gosper, who denies any wrongdoing in the Salt Lake City trip, rejected suggestions that his position influenced the Greek committee's decision about his daughter.
"Everybody will concoct their own conspiracy," he said. "I haven't interfered in this from the start. I've had no play in it. It's a matter for the Greeks.
"I'm simply saying this was a simple and generous gesture," he said.
Greek Olympic Committee president Lambis Nikolau defended his decision. "This is being blown out of proportion," he said.
Despite being informed just hours before the ceremony of the change, Souleles said she had no hard feelings.
"It is still an amazing thing we are here and they are letting us do this," she said.
The Gosper family has its own tradition in the torch relay.
Kevan Gosper's brother, Peter, carried the flame en route to the opening ceremony of the Melbourne Olympics in 1956; his son, Richard, was involved in Atlanta in 1996, and Gosper himself is expected to run with it in Australia.
The flame will travel around Greece before being given on May 20 to Sydney organizers in Athens' marble Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern Olympics was held in 1896.
After leaving Athens, the torch will land in Guam on May 22 to commence the Oceania leg in which it will touch down in 11 South Pacific nations and be carried by heads of state, supreme court judges and warriors in traditional dress.
On May 29, the torch will cross the international date line when it visits Vanuatu and Samoa. It will then travel to American Samoa and the Cook Islands before crossing back over the date line en route to Fiji and New Zealand.
The final leg of the relay will begin June 8 when it lands at Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, in the Australian Outback. In the northern state of Queensland, the flame was expected to be carried underwater for three minutes by a scuba diver on the Great Barrier Reef. It will remain alight using a special underwater-burning fuel.