There are a lot of different cycling events. Some are short events that take place on a track. There is a long road race; in Beijing, riders were able to ride by some great places like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China. BMX has recently been added to the Olympics.

Cycling seems to be a popular sport with Olympians that compete in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. You may remember Chris Witty (another C word), who took the gold in the 1000m women’s speed skating event in Salt Lake City. Although she didn’t medal, she did place fifth at the cycling time trials for the 500m event. Clara Hughes received a gold medal in the 5000m speed skating race in the Torino Olympics, as well as two bronze medals in the 1996 Atlanta games.

If you’re on Facebook, the Youth Olympic Games have their own page, and you can see pictures of the event. I’m not including the pictures here due to copyright reasons.

The modern Olympic flame did not originate with the first modern Olympics in 1896. It was re-introduced during the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. The torch relay began with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

If you ever get the chance to take part in a torch relay or Olympic flame ceremony, I highly recommend it. I was able to take part in the torch relay kickoff in Los Angeles for the Atlanta Games in 1996, and although most of the day was a blur, I do remember getting to run into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum carrying the American flag, and it was awesome.