High Priestess Theodora Siarkou here on Sunday lighted the Olympic torch with a backup flame in an official lighting ceremony for the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games.

Because of the overnight heavy rain and heavy clouds hovering the Ancient Olympia -- the birthplace of the Olympics, the backup flame, which were kindled with a concave steel mirror in a rehearsal on Saturday, were used to light the Olympic Flame.

Bad weather affected the ceremony for the Sydney 2000 Summer Games, and the past two Winter Olympics -- at Salt Lake City in 2002, and Nagano in 1998.

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