Watch Olympic Torch Cauldron Lightings From 1968-2010

Here are the majority of the Olympic torch cauldron lighting ceremonies from 1968 to 2010. Ohhh, ahhhh. Our favorite? It would have to come down to either the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, where the flame wooshed up the Olympic rings before hitting the cauldron, or the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, when the flame was lit by Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo. But judge for yourself.

However, the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics lighting deserves its own shout-out. The flame lighting of the cauldron was done by a visibly-shaking Muhammad Ali, who, as Bob Costas crudely points out, was "once the most dynamic figure in sports...now trapped inside that mask created by Parkinson's syndrome."

In more recent torch-related news, check out the Olympic torch as it made its journey along the Thames on Friday before heading to the Tower Bridge in central London ahead of today's opening ceremonies.