Who lit the Olympic flame at the 1992 Barcelona Games?

Who lit the Olympic flame at the 1992 Barcelona Games? Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo lit it with a flaming arrow.

During the opening ceremony at Barcelona’s Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc on 25 July 1992, Rebollo received the Olympic flame and used it to ignite an arrow. He shot the arrow over the cauldron, where it set alight gas rising from the bowl. The arrow was designed to pass safely beyond the cauldron rather than land inside it.

The spectacular scene became one of the most memorable Olympic cauldron lightings. Rebollo was a Spanish Paralympic archer who had competed at the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Paralympic Games and won medals in archery. His selection highlighted the relationship between Barcelona’s Olympic and Paralympic events.

People often confuse Rebollo with Juan Antonio Samaranch, the Spanish IOC president who attended the ceremony, or with Juan Antonio San Epifanio, who carried the flame into the stadium. Rebollo performed the final arrow shot, not the torch relay’s preceding handoff.