Olympic flame cauldron to be unveiled

The cauldron that will hold the Olympic flame is to be unveiled this weekend after the Salt Lake Organising Committee (SLOC) gave up trying to keep what is usually one of the Games's most closely-guarded secrets.

Engineering teams will place the fire and ice themed cauldron -- described as an engineering miracle -- atop a 45-metre trellis at Rice-Eccles stadium where the opening ceremonies will be staged and the flame lit on February 8.

The work will be carried out on Saturday and Sunday with the media being officially invited to view the cauldron on Tuesday.

"We were going to keep it enshrouded but that became too impractical given the location," Jim Doyle, the cauldron's lead designer, told Friday's edition of the Salt Lake Tribune.

"It made more sense to announce the design and show it off."

While not as intensely guarded as the identity of the final torchbearer, the design of the cauldron has generally been kept secret until the last possible moment by Games organisers.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, officials went to extreme lengths to keep their cauldron under wraps playing a cat and mouse game with the media.

The secrecy contributed to one of the Games's most memorable moments as the cauldron emerged from a pool of water where it was lit by Australia's 400 metres runner Cathy Freeman.

The flaming stainless steel disc was then mechanically conveyed to the top of a nine-metre mast above the stadium where it ignited the huge Olympic flame.

While the details are incomplete, the Salt Lake City cauldron's design will be a unique blend of traditional and modern elements, comprised of thousands of pieces of varying sizes made from material shipped from England and Japan.

"The design departs from past cauldrons; we just didn't want a bowl on fire," said Doyle, whose engineering firm also designed the $40 million fountain for the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

"We were looking for something that would display the flame more fully."

- Olympic Torch Relay - Slide show