Li Ning was an artistic Chinese gymnast of great repute. At the Los Angeles 1984 games, he won six medals. Three gold (pommel horse, floor exercises and rings), two silver (vault and team competition) and one bronze (individual all around). In Beijing, he surfaced again, executing a series of high-flying, high-wire moves to light the cauldron for the opening ceremony.

Robyn Perry was a 12-year-old Canadian schoolgirl and upcoming figure skater when she lit the cauldron in McMahon Stadium at the 1988 Calgary games.

Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, a beloved windsurfer from Greece, was a gold medalist in 1996 and a silver medalist in 2004. At those same 2004 games, he also lit the Olympic cauldron.

Rafer Johnson won the Olympic decathlon in 1960, as a U.S. athlete. That meant he was a master of not one, but 10 events in total. In recognition, he got to light the Los Angeles cauldron in 1984.

Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali, was also there at the 1960 games. Just 18 years old, the famed U.S. fighter took the gold in boxing. Thirty six years later, he was lighting the cauldron in Atlanta.

In 1980, Kerr, a psychologist and non-Olympian from the University of Arizona, was chosen to complete the final leg of the torch's long journey to Lake Placid.

Ken Henry took gold at the 1952 Olympics in the 500-meter speed skating event. Eight years later, in Squaw Valley, he became the first American athlete to light the Olympic cauldron.

German sprinter Fritz Schilgen lit the cauldron in 1936, culminating the first Olympic torch relay in which some 3,000 runners took part.

Stefania Belmondo, an Italian cross-country skier, won an impressive 10 medals in various alpine events between 1988 and 2002. The petite athlete didn't have to ski to Torino to fire up the Olympic cauldron though.

Finnish athletes Hannes Kolehmainen and Paavo Nurmi both contributed in the final stages of the cauldron lighting in Helsinki. Kolehmainen, the first of the Flying Finns, as they were affectionately known, set a high standard for later legendary distance runners like Nurmi.

Norway's crown prince lit the flame for the Lillehammer games. Both his father and his grandfather were Olympians.

Eigil Nansen concluded the first winter torch relay before lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Oslo winter games. He was the grandson of explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who rose to fame when he became the first man to cross Greenland on skis.

Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame at the Sydney 2000 games. She had the distinction of being the first Aboriginal Australian to win gold.

All in all, 1,600 torchbearers helped deliver the torch to Sandra Dubravcic, a renowned Yugoslavian figure skater who lit the cauldron in Sarajevo.

Antonio Rebollo, a Paralympic archer from Spain, was the one to light the Olympic flame at the 1992 Barcelona games. To ensure the crowd's safety, he was told to purposefully shoot over the cauldron, which was mechanically lit just as his arrow sailed overhead.

The German runner Günter Zahn lit the Olympic flame at the 1972 Munich games. Participants used several modes of transportation to deliver the torch to him, and included cyclists, horseback riders, motorcyclists and athletes in wheelchairs, the latter for the first time.

Alain Calmat, a French figure skater, lit the Grenoble cauldron. A microphone attached to his apparel let the whole stadium hear his heartbeat as he took the final steps.

Midori Ito, lighter of the Nagano cauldron, was the first female figure skater to land a triple axel in a major competition.

Guido Caroli, an Italian speed skater, did the honors in Cortina D'Ampezzo. Cables were inadvertently laid in his path, and he tripped over them while skating. He did not, however, drop the torch or let it extinguish, and finished making his way to the cauldron.

Yoshinori Sakaï was chosen to light the 1964 cauldron in Tokyo. He was born in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on that city.