Cologne (SID) – Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has given the International Olympic Committee a remarkable gift. The 89-year-old Briton presented IOC President Thomas Bach on Tuesday with the famous torch with which boxing legend Muhammad Ali had lit the Olympic flame at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
“It has been a great honor for me personally to find this unique torch and there is no better place for it than the IOC,” said Ecclestone when he visited the Lausanne headquarters.
Bach described the artifact as “an icon of the Olympic Games. Having this unique torch at the IOC is very special.” The fencing Olympic champion from 1976 said: “I think everyone in the Olympic movement still has this picture of Muhammad Ali in mind when he was already suffering from Parkinson’s, proudly holding the Olympic torch and then lighting the flame. “
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