Muhammad Ali Lit Atlanta's Olympic Flame 20 Years Ago Today

ATLANTA, GA — Muhammad Ali lit Atlanta's Olympic torch 20 years ago on July 19, 1996.

The upcoming Rio Olympics mark 20 years since the Centennial Games were held in Atlanta.

Five-time Olympic medalist Janet Evans handed the torch off to Ali.

Highlighted as one of the great moments in U.S. Olympics history, the event was included in the 2012 "Gold Medal Moments" series by Team USA.

"The way they orchestrated it was that no one knew, that I knew of," Dr. Bill Mallon, an Olympics historian, told producers. "And he sort of popped out from behind almost a magic curtain. Here was our greatest sporting hero, in my opinion, lighting the flame."

Olympic swimmer Evans had the honor of passing the torch to Ali — who passed away on June 3, 2016 — at the opening of the '96 games. She said last year that she would give up her five Olympic medals to relive the moment.

"And I ran up that track, and I ran up those three big, long stairways. And I got to the top, and there stood Muhammad Ali," Evans told the crowd at the 2015 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards. "And my moment with him was brief; you saw how quickly he lit that flame.

"But that moment for me, standing there, watching this man, with his courage and his determination, and being brought into the Olympic fold once again, 36 years after his gold medal in 1960," she said. "And to stand there in front of the world and inspire even more young people like myself, to be and do and accomplish anything we want to do, it was an epiphany for me. It was a defining moment in my Olympic career."

NBC exec Dick Ebersol reportedly had to lobby for Ali's inclusion in that iconic moment, he told Sporting Business Journal in 2015. In the interview, Ebersol recalled the conversation he had with '96 Olympics organizer Billy Payne.

"I don’t think there’s any question about it," he reportedly told Payne. "It should be Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali may be, outside of perhaps the pope, the most beloved figure in the world. In the third world, he’s a hero. In the Muslim world, he’s a hero and a fellow traveler. To anybody young — just about — in the United States, he’s a man of great moral principle who was willing to go to prison… He was willing to stand on his principles.”

• SEE ALSO: Muhammad Ali Surprised World at '96 Olympic Games

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