London 2012 Olympics: torch relay will convert even the staunchest Olympic sceptic

The London 2012 Olympic torch (Photo: LOCOG)

In May and June next year a curious feeling will overcome the UK.

Suddenly the most cynical and uninterested of the British public,  who has largely ignored the London 2012 Olympic Games build-up, will become converted into an Olympic fan.

The source of such revelation? A small flame on the end of a golden torch being carried around the country by 8,000 local people – and a few celebrities.

The impact and magnitude of the Olympic torch relay in creating a unified and passionate base for the home Games cannot be underestimated.

In the lead-up to the Sydney Olympic Games the mood of the nation shifted 180 degrees from anxiety about Olympic costs and ticketing to unbridled cheering on the day the Olympic torch arrived and was carried to Uluru by an aboriginal sprinter Nova Peris.

At the Vancouver Winter Olympics, divisions over the local communities and squabbling about costs were silenced in the cacophony of support for local torch bearers as it weaved its way throughout Canada.

I suspect that across the UK, the hundreds of communities that are already preparing for the torch arrival will galvanise a similar tidal wave of Olympic cheering.

Just why this is so, remains a mystery. I suspect people will say it is part myth – the thought that a flame lit by the rays of the sun can remain constantly light and bright and touch parts of the country that previously was immune to any connection to the Games, and part curiosity – to see what the fuss is all about.

Organisers of the London 2012 torch relay have taken a risk though, in deviating from the true relay concept. They are having runners pass the flame through towns, and then whisking it into the back of a truck to take it to the next town.

Part of the torch's romance was its journey through remote locations with just a farmer and his dog cheering it on, rather than ensuring every landmark has a picture opportunity.

But the organisers have taken this relay-by-truck method to ensure it will reach the farthest flung reaches of the country. And curiously it will be those areas the greatest distance away from London that will embrace the torch the most.