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Faster, higher, stronger. And first.

Olympic torch relay on the North Pole in -25°c. (Photo from torchrelay.sochi2014.com)

The world’s strongest nuclear-powered icebreaker brought the Olympic torch to the highest north on the fastest Murmansk-North Pole trip ever.

Location

Russia has lit the Olympic flame on the North Pole for the first time as part of the relay ahead of the Sochi Winter Games in February. A lamp with the flame was brought to the North Pole by the nuclear-powered icebreaker “50 let Pobedy”. A torch with the flame was then carried across a stretch of ice by representatives from all eight Arctic states before Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov lit a cauldron on the spot where all the time zones meet, the torch relay’s web site reads.

According to Atomflot, operator of Russia’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, this was the first time an icebreaker sailed to the North Pole during polar night. The journey from Murmansk to the North Pole took only 91 hours, which is a new record. The vessel sailed the 1395 nautical miles with an average speed of 15.6 knots. The thickness of ice on the spot where the ceremony was held was 1.3 meters, Atomflot writes in a press release.

The torchbearers on the North Pole were Lassi Heininen (Finland), Jens Petter Nielsen and Jan-Gunnar Winther (Norway), Karen Pat Pitney (USA), Steingrímur Jónsson (Iceland), Stephen Podborski (Canada), Sjöberg Ylva (Sweden), Marcussen Christian (Denmark) and Elena Kudryasheva, Valentin Davydyants and Artur Chilingarov  (Russia).

Russia’s most ambitious pre-Olympic torch relay includes a 65,000 kilometers journey across the country, from Kaliningrad in the west, to the Kamchatka peninsula on the Pacific Ocean. It is also scheduled to be taken into space and to the bottom of Lake Baikal.