Are you in the market for a really tough job? Try Olympic Torch Handler.

The torch represents the sacred fire which Prometheus gave long ago to mankind. Olympic rules stipulate that it must be lit at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece, by 11 priestesses using a parabola that focuses the light of the sun. And, once lit, it can’t go out, or else it has to be re-lit from the same source. (Before 1964, only the summer games did this, the winter games’ torch was lit in the fireplace of skiing pioneer Sondre Norheim.) From Greece, the torch begins its journey to its destination.

It was the Nazis, ironically, who invented the torch relay. In 1936, to draw attention to their games, they enlisted “volunteers” to carry the torch from Athens to Berlin. Every year since, the relay has gotten more complex. The torch has traveled on foot, by canoe, underwater, by Concorde jet, and has even been transmitted via laser. The logistics reached a pinnacle in 2004 when the torch went to every continent, visited every previous host city, was handed off to more than 11,000 carriers, before arriving in Athens.

Perhaps it was inevitable that someone would disrupt the procession. This year the Olympic relay has turned into a surreal obstacle course through impediments set up by folks lobbying for independence for Tibet. In France, three men wearing Olympic rings as shackles tried to extinguish the flame. People have painted themselves blood-red and “died” in the the torch’s path. The relay through London was rerouted. The police in San Francisco locked down several alternate routes through the city, staying one step ahead of the mob. At each step, the protesters grow more creative and the authorities more determined.

What’s a torch handler to do? Luckily, this year’s torch, designed by China’s Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, is fueled entirely by propane, making it nearly impossible to extinguish. It can withstand winds of up to 40 miles an hour, downpours of up to 2 inches of rain an hour, and temperatures of 40-below. And there are several “insurance flames” (lit at Olympia and kept in indestructible miner’s lanterns) that travel with the torch, to be used as backups.

But there’s lots of ways to blow out a flame. Have fun out there, Torch Handler.