#111: The 1996 Summer Olympics Yachting Cauldron

"I really don't know why it is that [we] are so committed to the sea…it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea — whether it is to sail or to watch it — we are going back from whence we came."

—John F. Kennedy (America's Cup Crew Dinner, 1962)

The 1996 Summer Olympics Yachting Cauldron

The Games of the XXVI Olympiad were held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996, marking the centennial of the 1896 Summer Olympics held in Athens, which re-launched the modern era of the Olympic Games. This Olympic Torch Sculpture, mainly known as the Olympic Cauldron, is found just off River Street in Morrell Park, commemorating the 1996 Olympic Yachting events held in the Atlantic Ocean near Savannah.

This Olympic Caldron burned the only official flame lit outside the host city of Atlanta. Seventy-eight countries competed in Olympic Yachting that year, including 461 athletes using 312 boats with racing events active over two full weeks. The Savannah flame remained lit throughout the games. Afterward, its current representation in copper replaced the actual burning flame.

Naturally, the five classical columns holding the torch symbolically refer both to Ancient Greece and the union of the world's athletes from the five representative continents — America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Oceana — that the five Olympic rings symbolize. A close look at the sculpture also reveals large billowing boat-sails surrounding the copper flame to signify the Olympic event.

Yachting events have been part of the Olympic Games since the first Olympiad in 1896. There were ten classes of events in the 1996 games held in Savanah, with 30 Olympic medals awarded. However, this would be the last time the sport was called yachting at the Olympic games. Since 2000, the Olympic sport has been recategorized to sailing.

The 1996 Summer Olympic games were memorably marred by violence when a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, killing one and injuring over one hundred. A heroic local security guard spotted a suspicious backpack. The security guard, Richard Jewell, was later falsely suspected of planting the bomb. Five years later, the actual perpetrator confessed to the bombing. Filmmaker Clint Eastwood, who told Savannah's story in his epic film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), also told the story about the Atlanta Olympic bombing in his film Richard Jewell (2019).

Considered among America's most talented artistic blacksmiths, Ivan Baily (1945-2013), a Georgia-based artist and teacher, designed this Olympic Caldron. With the help of busy Savannah art patron Mills B. Lane, Jr., Bailey opened his first forge on Bay Street in the 70s, aptly named: Bailey's Forge on Bay Street.

Morrell Park is the only Park in the Historic District located adjacent to the Savannah River. The Park is also home to The Waving Girl statue (see PFS-22), honoring the life of Florence Martus, the legendary romantic Savannahian who was the unofficial greeter to all ships reaching and leaving the port.

Savannah's Morell Park was initially established in the mid-1960s and then renamed in 1974 to honor William Goodrich Morrell, who served 30-years on the city's Park and Tree Commission. Like so many among Savannah's essential far-sighted leaders, Morrell fought tirelessly over decades to retain the beautiful spaces that today are so closely associated with this beautiful city. These include its plentiful parks, the unrivaled Forsyth Park Fountain, and the revitalization of its many priceless Squares.

Seen in the background across the Savannah River is The Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa.