<Li> In the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Stefania Belmondo placed the flame on an arched lighting apparatus, which initiated a series of fireworks before lighting the top of the 57 metres (187 ft) high Olympic cauldron, the highest in the history of the Winter Olympic Games . </Li> <Li> In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the cauldron resembled the end of a scroll that lifted out from the stadium rim and spiralled upwards . It was lit by Li Ning, who was raised to the rim of the stadium by wires . He ran around the rim of the stadium while suspended and as he ran, an unrolling scroll was projected showing film clips of the flame's journey around the world . As he approached the cauldron, he lit an enormous wick, which then transferred the flame to the cauldron . The flame then spiralled up the structure of the cauldron before lighting it at the top . </Li> <Li> In the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver, a team of athletes (Catriona Le May Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene and Wayne Gretzky) were to simultaneously light the base of poles, which would then carry the flames upwards to the cauldron . However, only three out of four poles came out of the ground due to mechanical problems, resulting in inadvertently excluding Le May Doan from lighting it with the other three athletes . Because the site of the ceremonies - BC Place - was a domed stadium, Gretzky was sent via the back of a pick - up truck to a secondary site--the Vancouver Convention Centre which served as the International Broadcast Centre for these Olympics--to light a larger cauldron of a similar design located outdoors, as Olympic rules state that the flame must be in public view for the entirety of the Olympics . In the closing ceremonies, Le May Doan took part in a joke about the mechanical glitch, and she was able to light the fully raised fourth pole and have the indoor cauldron relit . </Li> <Li> At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the flame was passed to a group of seven young British athletes who then each lit a single tiny flame on the ground, igniting 204 petals, one for each competing nation or territory during the Parade of Nations . Mounted on long, hinged arms, the petals were raised and converged to form the Olympic cauldron . The cauldron that traditionally flames continuously from the opening until the closing ceremony was temporarily extinguished (the flame itself was transferred to a lantern) prior to the athletics events while the cauldron was moved to the southern side of the stadium . It was relit by Austin Playfoot, a torchbearer from the 1948 Olympics . In contrast to the cauldrons in Vancouver, the cauldron was not visible to the public outside the stadium . Instead, monitors had been placed throughout the Olympic Park showing the public live footage of the flame . </Li>

Who holds the olympic flame throughout the games