Featured here is an official unused relay torch from the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which was postponed for one year due to the COVID pandemic. An amazing, resourceful piece of craftsmanship, it is constructed of recycled aluminum taken from temporary housing after the devastating loss of habitat and life in the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster [when a 9.1 magnitude earthquake instigated a catastrophic tsunami along the western coast of Japan]. Designed by Tokujin Yoshioka and inspired by the Japanese cherry blossom (Sakura), the torch measures 28″ long and 4.5″ at its widest point. Finished in a golden rose color, the torch has a fluted design featuring five petal-shaped columns around the tip, with the "Tokyo 2020" wreath emblem and Olympic rings on the front. The five separate flames from the flower petals come together as one at the center of the torch to give off a brilliant light known as the “Path of Hope.”
The Olympic flame was initially lit in Olympia, Greece, on March 12, 2020. The relay continued for one day, traveling through Amaliada, Pyrgos, Kyparissia, and Kalamata, before arriving in Sparta. On March 13th, the Hellenic Olympic Committee announced that the remainder of the relay would be canceled due to the rapidly spreading coronavirus. The handover ceremony took place at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on March 19th, and the flame was subsequently flown to Japan where it remained lit for a whole year in anticipation of the postponed Games. The relay resumed in Japan in March 2021 and finally culminated at the Opening Ceremonies on July 23, 2021, making it one of, if not, the longest lasting Olympic flame on record.
This efficiently designed representation of creativity, innovation and sustainability is perhaps the most impressive of all Olympic torches to date, its “flame of recovery” symbolizing the resilience of the human spirit. It presents like-new and comes in its original cylindrical box tube for easy storage and transport. You can essentially count on one hand the number of these torches, used or unused, that have hit the auction block, with each previous result reaching five figures.