SPORTS

Olympic torch takes a dive in world's deepest lake

The Associated Press Published Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07PM EST

A handout picture taken during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay on November 23, 2013, and released by the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee shows diving torchbearers carrying the flame in Lake Baikal, the world's deepest body of fresh water.

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MOSCOW -- The Olympic torch has plunged into Russia's Lake Baikal in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Games.

Video footage from the Sochi Olympic Organizing Committee showed local lifeguard Nikolai Rybachenko in scuba gear on Saturday, lighting what the committee said was a water-resistant flare atop the torch and submerging himself in the world's biggest lake.

The 65,000-kilometre Sochi torch relay, which started on Oct. 7, is the longest in Olympic history. The torch has travelled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker and has even been flown into space.

The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame in Sochi on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Games that run until Feb. 23.