London 2012 Olympic Torch Revealed

The London 2012 Olympic torch, which will be carried around the UK in a 70-day relay by 8,000 torchbearers, has been unveiled by east London designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

The torch will be a three-sided golden cone with the flame burning through its perforated shell.

Made from an aluminium alloy, it is light enough to be carried by young people who are expected to make up half of the torchbearers.

There are 8,000 laser-cut circular perforations, one for each torchbearer, in its double-skinned exterior to keep the weight down and allow onlookers to see the flame through the sides of the torch as well as rising from the top.

Jay Osgerby said: ‘We felt it should be something that’s really beautiful and simple’.

‘But it had to feel like a functional object, a piece of sporting equipment like a baton’ added Edward Barber.

The design will undergo weather testing at BMW’s facility in Munich where it will be exposed to low temperatures, wind and rain.

London organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe said: ‘The torch that carries the Olympic flame during the torch relay is one of the most recognisable and significant symbols of an Olympic Games’.
 
‘Members of the public right across the UK are busy nominating inspiring people to be torchbearers and I am thrilled we have a beautifully-designed, engineered and crafted torch for them to carry’.

Nominations are currently under way to find ‘inspirational’ members of the public – many of them aged 12-24 – to carry the torch.