EXCLUSIVE Muhammad Ali Center Has Ali’s Olympic Torch, IOC’s Not The Real Item

By Barry Janoff

July 30, 2020: On July 19, 1996, one of the most seminal moments in Olympic history occurred when Muhammad Ali stood on a podium in Centennial Olympic Stadium and held the torch that lit the cauldron to officially begin the Summer Games in Atlanta.

The torch carried by Ali and seen worldwide is viewed as one the most iconic items in Olympic history.

According to the Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, Ky., the torch was given to Ali and his wife, Lonnie, who kept it until they donated it on loan to the Muhammad Ali Center, which includes it as part of its collection in the Muhammad Ali Museum.

“The Ali Center still has on display the torch that Muhammad carried at the Atlanta Olympic Games,” Jeanie B. Kahnke, Senior Director, Public Relations and External Affairs for the Center, told NYSportsJournalism via e-mail.

”It was donated to the Center by the Muhammad Ali Family. We have the assurance from the family that this torch is the original.”

Last week, however, the International Olympic Committee said that Bernie Ecclestone, the former Chief Executive for the Formula One group, donated to the IOC what they said was “the iconic original torch with which Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium at the Olympic Games Atlanta 1996.”

“Personally, it was a great honor finding this unique torch, and there is no better place for it to be than at the IOC,” said Ecclestone, via the IOC.

“This torch is an icon of the Olympic Games,” IOC President Thomas Bach was quoted when receiving the artifact.

“I think everybody in the Olympic Movement still has this image of Muhammad Ali, when he was already suffering from the beginning of his Parkinson’s disease, standing there in those very touching moments, proudly holding the Olympic torch and then lighting the flame.”

“To have this unique torch at the IOC is something very special. I would like to thank Mr. Ecclestone from the bottom of my heart,” said Bach.

The IOC shared with the press a photo of Bach and Ecclestone holding the torch, and even used the image of Ali holding his torch in Atlanta as part of its new “Stronger Together” campaign (pictured above).

Even in his prime, Muhammad Ali, who passed away in 2016, couldn’t be in two places at the same time.

With the verified torch in the Muhammad Ali Center Museum, what did the IOC actually get?

A torch that Ecclestone now says he acquired at auction, believing it was the real deal.

“I understood that this was the final torch of the Relay for the Atlanta Games, which was used by Muhammad Ali to light the cauldron,” Ecclestone told NYSportsJournalism via the IOC.

“There was even some media coverage around the auctioning of the final Atlanta 1996 torch. I thought, 'Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this torch could be displayed in The Olympic Museum?' and I decided to enter the auction.

“Eventually, I won the bid and donated the torch to the IOC in good faith.”

An IOC spokesperson told NYSportsJournalism via e-mail, “Mr. Ecclestone clearly acted in good faith to make a very generous donation to the IOC. All of us thought this was the final torch signed by Muhammad Ali.”

An Olympic torch (not THE torch) signed by Ali had a winning bid of $12,500 last year via Julien’s Auctions, based in Los Angeles.

A news clipping previewing that auction sent to NYSportsJournalism by the IOC described the item as “The torch used by Muhammad Ali to signal the start of the Atlanta Games in 1996.”

It was not.

Julien’s Auctions’ description was more specific, but still left room for doubt as to whether this was the actual torch used by Ali to light the cauldron.

“A 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics relay used torch, signed by Muhammad Ali. Ali has signed on the middle handle of the torch "Muhammad Ali/ 96" in black marker . . . The torch is housed in a display with a plaque mounted at the base that reads "Olympic Torch/ Signed by Muhammad Ali/ Used in the Torch Relay for the/ 1996 Centennial Olympic Games/ Atlanta, Georgia."

Muhammad Ali Olympic Torch in the Ali Center MuseumWhen asked what the IOC might have in its possession and where and how Ecclestone might have found the torch he donated to the IOC, Kahnke said, “I am unable to answer (those) two questions.

An ESPN story in August 2016 written by Thomas Neumann (now an editor for USA Today Media Group) to coincide with the Summer Games in Rio wrote that the Ali Museum had the original torch carried and used during the Opening Ceremony in 1996 by Ali.

That article also confirmed what Kahnke said.

"It's on loan to the Ali Center from the Ali family," Casey Harden, then and still the Manager of Collections at the Ali Center told Neumann. "It came directly to the Ali Center from Lonnie and Muhammad Ali."

Considering that the duplicate torch signed by Ali went for $12,500, what might the real torch fetch if hypothetically it were to ever be put up for auction?

“I believe the floor would be $500,000 and it would not surprise me if it topped $1.5 million plus,” said Ken Goldin, founder and CEO, Goldin Auctions, Runnemede, NJ. “However, it also wouldn’t surprise me if it was still in $500,000 range.

“I think that it's an emotional and historic piece, but not part of his boxing career such as famous fight-worn gloves that has built in collector base.”

Goldin Auctions recently sold a LeBron James card for a record $1.8 million, and currently has a Mike Trout signed rookie 1/1 card which started bidding at $1 million.

“The reason is collector base,” said Goldin. “People cannot and should not equate a trading card price to anything else but a trading card price.

“Those buyers are unique buyers to that class of collectible, which many of them view as its own asset class. They are actively traded, very liquid, and easily stored, which is while they may be a sign of a strong sports collectible market.

“Their prices do not necessarily correlate equally into other memorabilia that is bulky, less liquid and not as easy to store or display.”

The IOC has now taken down the page on its Web site and deleted the photo relating to the torch donation.

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