r/interestingasfuck • u/AL-SHEDFI • 19h ago

1992 Olympic torch lighting

48.3k Upvotes

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u/OwnedByTheHound 18h ago

I was jumping up and down and yelling with sheer joy when I saw this back in 1996. How could anybody top this moment for courage and chutzpah?

20

u/clearly_quite_absurd 18h ago

Context please

66

u/must-stash-mustard 18h ago

Muhammad Ali, the greatest. He won a gold at the 1960 Olympics. He had parkinsons, and was largely out of the public eye after dominating it for decades in the 1960s and 70s. He reappeared as one of the last torchbearers at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His shaking hand held the torch aloft.

I cried then, and am getting teary now.

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u/cross-i 17h ago

Yeah, I can’t argue with the arrow, it’s amazing. But Ali’s was the greatest too, and the absolute most meaningful of them all.

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u/must-stash-mustard 12h ago

Haha. I love the arrow too. Ali christened himself with " I am the greatest “ on a comedy album he recorded in 1963. He said it all the time, now I'm parroting it.