ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece — Even the gods need a backup plan.

Organizers in Ancient Olympia held an emergency rehearsal Monday to light the flame for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games, seizing on a brief break in Greece’s stormy weather.

With heavy cloud cover forecast for Wednesday’s official lighting ceremony, the flame produced Monday will be kept as a backup.

An actress portraying an ancient high priestess used a concave mirror to concentrate the sun’s rays onto a torch. I took seven seconds to ignite the flame – without artificial means and preserving a tradition inspired by the original Olympic Games dating back 2,800 years.

The flame was lit following a theatrical invocation of Apollo, the ancient god of light. But success depends on simple, unforgiving physics: The mirror must

See Full Page