| Games | Location | Lighter | Sport | Note | Ref. |
| 1936 Summer | Berlin | Fritz Schilgen | Athletics | Schilgen was not a competitor at the Olympics, but was chosen for his graceful running style. | |
| 1948 Summer | London | John Mark | Athletics | Little-known former medical student from Cambridge University. | |
| 1952 Winter | Oslo | Eigil Nansen | Non-athlete | Grandson of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. He is the first non-athlete to light the flame. | |
| 1952 Summer | Helsinki | Paavo Nurmi | Athletics | Nurmi was a winner of nine Olympic gold medals in the 1920s; Kolehmainen won four Olympic gold medals. Nurmi lit a cauldron on field level before handing the torch to four football players who relayed the torch to the top of the tower. Kolehmainen then lit the final, higher-placed cauldron. | |
| Hannes Kolehmainen |
| 1956 Winter | Cortina d'Ampezzo | Guido Caroli | Speed skating | Participant in the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Winter Olympics. Skating with the torch, he tripped over a television cable but kept the flame burning. | |
| 1956 Summer | Melbourne | Ron Clarke (Melbourne) | Track and field | Wikne later participated in the 1964 Summer Olympics. After Wikne lit the brazier on the infield, the flame was passed on to Karin Lindberg and Henry Ericksson, who separately ran up the two towers of the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. | |
| Hans Wikne (Stockholm) | Equestrianism |
| 1960 Winter | Squaw Valley | Ken Henry | Speed skating | Olympic champion in Men's 500 metres | |
| 1960 Summer | Rome | Giancarlo Peris | Athletics | Track athlete of Greek descent. The Italian National Olympic Committee decided that the last torchbearer of the Olympics would be the winner of a junior cross country running race. | |
| 1964 Winter | Innsbruck | Josef Rieder | Alpine skiing | Former Olympic athlete, competed in the 1956 Winter Olympics | |
| 1964 Summer | Tokyo | Yoshinori Sakai | Athletics | Sakai was born on the same day the atom bomb exploded over his native Hiroshima. He did not participate in the Olympics. | |
| 1968 Winter | Grenoble | Alain Calmat | Figure skating | Silver medalist at the 1964 Winter Olympics | |
| 1968 Summer | Mexico City | Enriqueta Basilio | Athletics | Sprinter who participated in these Olympics; the first woman to light the Olympic cauldron. | |
| 1972 Winter | Sapporo | Hideki Takada (高田 英基, Takada Hideki) | Non-athlete | A sixteen year old Japanese student. | |
| 1972 Summer | Munich | Günther Zahn | Athletics | Middle-distance runner. Winner of the West German junior athletics championships. | |
| 1976 Winter | Innsbruck | Christl Haas | Alpine skiing | Haas won gold on downhill in 1964 Winter Olympics; Feistmantl won luge doubles in the same Games. | |
| Josef Feistmantl | Luge |
| 1976 Summer | Montreal | Sandra Henderson | Gymnastics | Two teenagers representing English and French Canadian. Neither of them participated in any Olympics. | |
| Stéphane Préfontaine | Athletics |
| 1980 Winter | Lake Placid | Charles Morgan Kerr | Non-athlete | A psychiatrist from Arizona who had been elected from all 52 torch relay bearers to run the final leg. | |
| 1980 Summer | Moscow | Sergei Belov | Basketball | Member of the Soviet basketball team,Olympic Champion at the 1972 Summer Olympics. | |
| 1984 Winter | Sarajevo | Sanda Dubravčić | Figure skating | Best placed Winter Olympic Athlete from former Yugoslavia until that date.She finished 10th at Individual event at the 1980 Winter Olympics. | |
| 1984 Summer | Los Angeles | Rafer Johnson | Athletics | Olympic Champion at the Men's decathlon at 1960 Summer Olympics; the first person of African descent to light the Olympic cauldron. | |
| 1988 Winter | Calgary | Robyn Perry | Figure skating | A 12-year-old schoolgirl and aspiring figure skater. Perry's choice symbolized the future of the Olympic movement, since in 1986, the International Olympic Committee had decided to implement new policies, including the change in the cycle between the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. | |
| 1988 Summer | Seoul | Chung Sun-man | Non-athlete | Chung Sun-man was a schoolteacher. Sohn was a young Korean dancer. Kim Won-tak was a young track athlete who took part in that Games' marathon. | |
| Sohn Mi-chung |
| Kim Won-tak | Athletics |
| 1992 Winter | Albertville | Michel Platini | Association football | Platini took part with the French football team in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Grange was a future alpine skier (and older brother of future multiple-time alpine skiing Slalom world champion Jean-Baptiste Grange). Aged nine at the time, Grange became the youngest final lighter in history. | |
| François-Cyrille Grange | Alpine skiing |
| 1992 Summer | Barcelona | Antonio Rebollo | Archery | Paralympian who competed in the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Summer Paralympics, winning two silvers and a bronze. The only Paralympian ever to light the Olympic cauldron, Rebollo shot a flaming arrow over an open natural gas cauldron to ignite it. | |
| 1994 Winter | Lillehammer | Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway | Non-athlete | Heir apparent to the throne of Norway. Though he was not an Olympian, both his father and grandfather took part in the Olympics and he lit the cauldron on their behalf. He was also the patron of the Games and his involvement was crucial to their realization. Also, his father declared the games opened | |
| 1996 Summer | Atlanta | Muhammad Ali | Boxing | 1960 Summer Olympics light heavyweight boxing gold medalist; the first Muslim to light the Olympic cauldron. | |
| 1998 Winter | Nagano | Midori Ito | Figure skating | Silver medalist at the 1992 Winter Olympics | |
| 2000 Summer | Sydney | Cathy Freeman | Track and field | Silver medalist in 1996 and would later win at these games, both in the 400 metres. She is one of two people to light the cauldron and win a gold medal in the same games, alongside Teddy Riner. Cathy was also chosen as part of the celebration of 100 years of women being included in the Olympics, she was passed the Olympic flame in the final lighting of the flame by 5 other Australian women who are significant in Australian Olympic history. She is also the first person of indigenous descent to light the cauldron. | |
| 2002 Winter | Salt Lake City | The 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team | Ice hockey | Protagonists of the historial fact called "Miracle on Ice"; an upset of the Soviet hockey team en route to the gold medal. | |
| 2004 Summer | Athens | Nikolaos Kaklamanakis | Sailing | Winner of Olympic gold in 1996 and would win a silver in these Olympics. | |
| 2006 Winter | Turin | Stefania Belmondo | Cross-country skiing | Winner of ten Olympic medals between 1992 and 2002, two of them gold. One of Italy's most decorated Olympians. | |
| 2008 Summer | Beijing | Li Ning | Artistic gymnastics | Li won 6 medals (3 gold,2 silvers and 1 bronze) at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He was China's most successful athlete at their first Olympic appearance since 1952. | |
| 2010 Winter | Vancouver | Steve Nash (indoor cauldron) | Basketball | Le May Doan was a winner of two gold medals in the 500 m in 1998 and 2002 and a bronze in the 1000 m in 1998. Nash is a two-time NBA MVP with the Phoenix Suns and a former member of the Canadian Olympic Basketball team, playing in 2000 Summer Olympics. Greene won gold in the giant slalom and silver in the slalom in 1968 Winter Olympics. Gretzky was a member of the Canadian ice hockey team and won four Stanley Cup titles as captain of the Edmonton Oilers (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988). He was the executive director of the Canadian men's hockey team in 2002, who won gold at that Games. During the opening ceremony, Nash and Greene lit a cauldron inside the BC Place indoor stadium. Gretzky then lit a second, outdoor cauldron near the Vancouver Convention Centre. Only the outdoor cauldron remained lit throughout the Games. Le May Doan was supposed to participate in the lighting of the indoor cauldron, but was left out when one of the four arms failed to raise due to mechanical problems. This was corrected at the beginning of the closing ceremony, when a joke was made about the mechanical error, and she was able to light the newly emerged fourth arm and relight the indoor cauldron to begin the closing ceremony. | |
| Nancy Greene Raine (indoor cauldron) | Alpine skiing |
| Wayne Gretzky (outdoor cauldron) | Ice hockey |
| Catriona Le May Doan (closing ceremony) | Speed skating |
| 2012 Summer | London | Desirèe Henry | Track and field | The cauldron was lit by seven teenagers, each nominated by a veteran British Olympian: Airlie (Shirley Robertson) Duckitt (Duncan Goodhew) Henry (Daley Thompson) Kirk (Dame Mary Peters) MacRitchie (Sir Steve Redgrave) Reynolds (Lynn Davies) Tracey (Dame Kelly Holmes) Austin Playfoot later relit the cauldron in its new spot in the Olympic Stadium. Duckitt was the only non-athlete among them. Henry would later go on to win an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m in 2016. | |
| Katie Kirk |
| Aidan Reynolds |
| Adelle Tracey |
| Callum Airlie | Sailing |
| Jordan Duckitt | Non-athlete (Young Ambassadors Group) |
