Rio 2016 Ready To Flick Your Bic

Feast your eyes on the 2016 Olympic torch!

With just 399 days until the Rio 2016 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, today the organizing committee unveiled the Olympic torch design at a press event in Brasilia.

The new torch is sleek, coated with scale-like satin-finished triangles, and expands when about to be kissed by the Olympic flame.

According to media materials, the expanding sections reveal tiny curved canyons of tropical colors resembling or representing Brazil's topography, rivers and coastline, and the iconic sidewalk pavers of Copacabana Beach. National newspaper O Globo featured a video from the announcement.

The official Olympic Torch Relay website provides a 360-degree view of the design. An interactive map details a 90 to 100 day domestic relay route starting in the nation's capital and moving through every Brazilian state.

Relay sponsors will share details of the torchbearer selection process at a later date to be announced.

For this blogger, Rio's Olympic torch is classy while innovative -- this is the first Olympic torch to expand when tickled by a relay runner's grip.

For safety, just the tip will disperse the fuel within for a hot Olympic flame cheered by millions of fans on the road to Rio.

Images via Rio 2016

Tocha Olímpica Tease

It may not be the biggest Olympic Torch Relay in history, but when the 2016 flame caravan touches down in the host nation in May next year, it will be the most Brazilian.

Today organizers at Rio 2016 announced a few, teasing details of their Olympic Torch Relay, which will begin roughly 100 days before the Opening Ceremony on 5 August.

By the numbers, the light brigade will include:

• Visits to 250 cities and towns
• Routes connecting urban and rural dots across 26 states and the Federal District
• Capital cities to be visited: 27
• Ten to 12 hours per day in transit
• Proximity to more than 180 million of Brazil's nearly 203 million residents (about 90 percent
  
  of the host nation's population may see the relay in motion)
• More than 10,000 torchbearers on foot
• Over 20,000km driven by caravan vehicles (per vehicle)
• At least 10,000 airline miles as the Olympic flame is delivered from Greece to Brazil
• Tens of thousands of torchbearer nominations anticipated (process to be announced)
  
• One amazing new torch design (to be unveiled later this year; press materials state the torch relay logo "hints" at the chosen torch design)
• Three official presenting sponsors: Coca-Cola, Nissan and Bradesco (Olympic torch relay beverages, buggies and banking, respectively).

I'm excited by the possibilities afforded by this South American Olympiad.

Will the flame get pulled up an Amazon Basin hillside atop a 300 ton "Fitzcarraldo" steamship? (Wait, no, that took place in Peru.)

Will Wonder Woman and other Amazon women take part in the exchange of torches? (Only if they do so in Greece, where  that Amazon character originated.)

How will the monumental architecture of Brasilia get its due, along with São Paulo landmarks and those at Foz do Iguaçu? (Amazing torch-inclusive photo opps await!)

Stay tuned for updates!

Relay images via Rio 2016; Brazil map photo via Twitter.com/Rio2016 @Rio2016. Fitzcarraldo photo via this blog.