The Olympic flame has not been burning continuously for years; it is lit anew for each Games and stays lit only from the opening ceremony until the closing ceremony of that edition of the Olympics.

Quick Scoop: Direct answer

  • In modern times, the Olympic flame is lit in Olympia, Greece shortly before each Games, carried via torch relay, and used to ignite the main cauldron at the opening ceremony.
  • That flame then stays burning for the entire duration of those Games and is extinguished at the closing ceremony.
  • After that, it goes out completely; the next Olympic flame is created again for the next Games with a new lighting ceremony in Olympia.

So if you’re asking “how long has the Olympic flame been lit” in the sense of one continuous flame, the answer is: only for the span of each individual Games (usually a bit over two weeks), plus the relay period beforehand, not years or decades straight.

A fun mental image is a single sacred fire burning since ancient Greece, but in reality each Games has its own flame, symbolically linked through the repeated lighting ritual in Olympia.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.