Royal torchbearer lights the Olympic Flame at Aegina’s Temple of Aphaia
Prince Albert of Monaco was the man chosen to light the flame at the altar of the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina. He arrived by helicopter, waited for the flame to do the rounds of the Argo-Saronic islands, had a cup of tea at a cafe beneath the venerable pine trees and donned his sports outfit when the time came. He lit his torch from the flame and moved athletically up the slope of the ancient pathway to the altar that had been set up for the Olympic Flame as the sun peeped between the columns, a scene that might make the cover of those French magazines that took orders for pictures of the popular Albert, still an eligible bachelor, by the internationally acclaimed photographer Dimi Argyropoulos. Here is the picture, with the comment that the real prince, IOC member and bobsled competitor in the Winter Olympics, was the most modest of all those who held the flame – and his torch didn’t go out.
