For London 2012, that moment came 10 years ago this week, when the Olympic Flame began its journey from Ancient Olympia in the heart of the Greek Pelopponese.

It was by any standards an unforgettable week, certainly one of the most memorable and emotional I have experienced in reporting sport.

"We promise to protect the Flame, to cherish its traditions and to stage an uplifting Torch Relay of which we can all be proud and which can inspire a generation," pledged London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe to his Greek hosts. 

The streets of Olympia were festooned with Greek and British flags as the whole of the Olympic world seemed to have gathered.

Many, including Coe, were witnessing the magic of a Lighting Ceremony for the first time.

He did, however, reveal that he had been to Olympia before.

In 1975, Coe won 1500 metres bronze medal at the European Junior Championships in Athens.

In those days it had been possible to travel on a picturesque railway line along the Greek coast to the tiny station at Olympia so he simply jumped on a train.

In 2012 Coe made a point of going for an early morning run around the ancient precincts before the formalities of the Lighting Ceremony.

 London received an Olympic Flame for a second time in 2012, but Coe was the first chairman of a London Organising Committee to come to Olympia for the lighting.

In the early days of the Torch Relay, Organising Committee officials did not ordinarily travel to the Ceremony in Olympia.

For that matter, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Sigfrid Edstrom was not present either in 1948 when London had last hosted the Games.

This was perhaps just as well, because at the time, civil war was raging in Greece.

London’s sole representative in Greece was, therefore, retired Royal Navy officer Bill Collins, the organiser of the Relay.

The conflict made it impossible for the designated High Priestess to travel from Athens.

Instead local girl Maria Aggelakopoulou was persuaded to conduct the Lighting Ceremony and local  villagers set about sewing a costume for her to wear.

The first Torchbearer was Greek soldier Corporal Konstantinos Dimitrellis, who removed his uniform as a symbolic gesture for peace before he took the Flame.

Even so, danger of attack from rebel forces made it impossible for the Flame to take an originally planned route to Athens.

Instead it headed for the nearby port of Katakolon from which it began a sea voyage to Corfu and then on to Italy.

Happily, when the great day arrived in 2012, the sky was pitch perfect blue, perhaps in accordance with a prayer to Apollo by Ino Menegaki, the Greek actress who played the role of High Priestess.

As it was being carried into the Stadium however, a freak gust blew out the Flame, but with grace, the priestess retraced her steps as if it was all part of the performance.

It was Spiros Gianniotis, a Greek open water swimmer, who was the first Torch Bearer from the Ancient Stadium and shortly afterwards, he passed the Flame to Alex Loukos, one of London 2012’s young ambassadors when they had been awarded the Games in Singapore seven years before.

To interview Giannotis afterwards was to discover that he had a broad Scouse accent, explained by his birthplace of Liverpool.

The Relay cavalcade set off through the village of Olympia and headed out across Greece.

This portion of the journey lasted the best part of a week but the itinerary must have come as a surprise to the Visit England tourist organisation who had produced a rather self satisfied television commercial.

Actor Rupert Grint, best known for his portrayal of Ron Weasley in Harry Potter, told viewers "You won’t get to see the Olympic Torch Relay in Corfu or Crete,"

Oh no? One of the first destinations was indeed Crete. 

The Flame was also taken to the Turkish border outpost of Kipi where a cauldron was lit by an emotional Olympic Torch Relay Commission Chairman Spyros Zannias.

"We brought the Flame here to the border between Greece and Turkey to prove that there is nothing that separates the people of the planet," Zannias declared.

Everywhere it went in Greece, it was greeted by  dance and music from performers in traditional costumes.

These were just moments in a long  journey but memories for a lifetime.

It was a glorious Athenian evening as a traditional cauldron was ignited in front of the Parthenon.

The Princess Royal, in attendance as President of the British Olympic Association, wore sunglasses against the glare, but the following day the most important accessory at the Panathinaiko Stadium was an umbrella as heavy rain fell.

In fact, the downpour continued throughout the Handover Ceremony but the crowd did catch a glimpse of David Beckham who had been part of the London 2012 delegation.

Many were amused when the stadium master of ceremonies bestowed a Knighthood on "Sir David".

Beckham had also been a member of the bid team which had persuaded the IOC to choose London in the first place.

There was to be  foretaste of the pulling power that  the Flame was to exert when hundreds  turned out even before the sun had risen at the Southernmost spot on British mainland, appropriately known as Land's End.

This time, the Flame touched down in a helicopter.

 Sir Ben Ainslie, at the time a four time Olympic gold medallist was the first runner in a journey which carried it the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

Many now hail the London 2012 Games as on a par with Sydney 2000 as the greatest modern Games but it is easy to forget that in the months before there had been no little cynicism over the Games.

Many had been frustrated by the  application process for ticket applications, all on line, and there was also a fiasco over the provision of security staff for the Games.

As the Relay continued, the mood visibly changed.

Bells rang throughout London on the day of the Opening Ceremony and crowds lined the Thames to see the Royal Rowbarge Gloriana transport the Flame to Tower Bridge only a few hours before the Opening Ceremony.

Later the progress of the Flame along the river was rather faster as Beckham reappeared to drive the speedboat which transported it to the Olympic Stadium. 

The Torch itself was actually held by teenage footballer and future international Jade Bailey.

When the Flame was finally lit, It did come as something of a disappointment that it was not visible except inside the Stadium.

The organisers insisted unconvincingly that this was in tribute to the 1948 cauldron which had been similarly positioned, but it was surely an error of judgement to deny visitors to the Olympic Park a chance to see it.

It was also the first cauldron designed to be dismantled, as each of the constituent petals was presented to one of the 206 National Olympic Committees.

The atmosphere produced by that Torch Relay 10 years ago now seems somehow even more precious, after recent Relays were so affected by COVID-19.

Tokyo’s ground to a halt in Sparta only a day after the 2020 Flame had been lit.

In fact the postponement of the Games meant that the domestic journey around Japan did not begin in earnest for a year.

Even then, although it was ultimately carried on the prescribed schedule, it seemed very much a matter of going through the motions, with none of the spontaneity of London 2012.

COVID-19 concerns were the reason given when the Beijing 2022 Relay in Greece was restricted to a very short symbolic run at the ancient site in Greece.

When it reached China, it was only set in motion during the last few days before the Games with little opportunity for ordinary people to watch its passage.

Even the Micro Flame was visible to only a select few who were permitted to get close in the park because of a restrictive "closed loop" system.

It is to be hoped that a more normal Torch Relay will prove possible for Paris 2024.

Joie de vivre is a French term after all.