1956 Olympic Flame Hoax
The 1956 Olympic flame hoax was an incident in which Barry Larkin a veterinary student at the University of Sydney, ran off with a homemade torch and fooled spectators, including a police officer and the Mayor of Sydney, into thinking he was the torchbearer of the Olympic flame. The Independent called it the biggest hoax in Olympic history.
In the lead-up to the 1956 Olympics, around 3000 runners carried the Olympic torch across Australia. First it went on a 29-hour flight from Athens to Darwin, where it was passed to its first runner, Aboriginal basketball star Billy Larrakeya. Champion runner Harry Dillon was to carry the torch to Sydney Town Hall and hand it to Lord Mayor Pat Hills, who would then give a speech and pass it to the next runner.
1956 Olympic Flame Hoax
Larkin and eight other students at St John’s College at the University of Sydney planned to stage a protest against the 1956 Olympic torch relay. One reason for the protest was that the torch relay had been invented by the Nazis for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
Executing The Plan
One student who planned the escape wore white shorts and a white top and another mischievous person dressed up in a Reserve Air Force uniform to act as a fake military escort. The whole group of mischievous people created a homemade torch by taking the wooden leg from a chair, covering it with silver paint (still wet) and nailing an empty plum pudding can to the top. The result was a roughly torch-shaped object. To light the torch, they filled it with underwear soaked in kerosene.
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It is estimated that 30,000 people lined the streets of Sydney in anticipation. When the impostors arrived, they set fire to the kerosene-soaked underwear. With a burning torch in hand, the designated runner set out on foot through the streets. His friend, disguised as a uniformed motorcycle escort, also joined him.
Initially, the two students and their fake torch made onlookers and police laugh. The runner then swung his arms dramatically, accidentally dropping his kerosene-soaked underwear from his torch. He panicked and fled. The confused crowd drew closer. One of the mischievous students standing on the sidelines picked up the burning underwear and ordered fellow mischievous Barry Larkin to run with the fake torch, kicking him in the rump.
