The following BBC article says the Olympic torch relay, in its current form, has a very dark origin, as a propaganda tool of Nazi Germany for the 1936 Games in Berlin. Something to think about as the 2008 Beijing torch makes its way around the world, itself subject of controversy due to China's human rights record.
BBC
The Berlin relay was intended to showcase Nazi Germany as a modern, progressive state, and included celebration from Gypsies and other groups who would be exterminated a few years later. The torch lighting in Olympia used a Zeiss mirror, and the torches supplied by Krups, to showcase German industrial might. And of course, bringing the torch from Greece to Germany reinforced Hitler's views of Germany being an Aryan nation descended from glorious Greek empires of the past.
Really dark, disgusting stuff.
