Olympics legend Nadia Comaneci carried the 2012 torch on the roof of the North Greenwich Arena as the flame began a seven-day tour of London that will culminate at the Games opening ceremony.
The perfect 10-scoring Romanian gymnast, who won five gold medals over the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, passed the flame on to British ex-NBA basketball star John Amaechi atop the former Millennium Dome, which will host the artistic and trampoline gymnastics as well as the basketball finals.u00a0
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The flame spent the night at the Tower of London, where the British sovereign’s ceremonial jewels are kept, following a dramatic arrival in the city on Friday, a week before the opening ceremony on July 27. It was flown in on a Royal Navy helicopter and lowered to the ground by a marine commando carring it in a Davy lamp attached to his waist. The final seven days in London are the last legs of an 12,800-kilometre journey around Britain.u00a0