PHOENIX - A Native American teenager, who dreams of becoming an Olympian, accepted the Olympic flame yesterday, running the relay's first kilometer here amid corn meal sprinkled on the pavement for good luck.

The 32-inch torch was almost half the height of 16-year-old Juwan Nuvawokva, a two-time boys' state cross-country champion at Hopi High School in northern Arizona.

Nuvawokva ran over corn meal dusted on the pavement by Hopi tribal chairman Ferrell Secakuku as hundreds in the crowd cheered.

''I just wanted to do it right. It's a great honor to be the first one,'' said Nuvawokva. ''I'd like to be an Olympian someday, hopefully. It's one of my dreams.''

Thousands of gawkers lined the city's downtown streets to catch a glimpse of the Olympic flame, which arrived yesterday morning after a 172-mile trip from Yuma by freight train - only the second time in the history of the Games that is has traveled by rail.

''It's like watching a little bit of history happen right before your eyes,'' said Tom Barnowski, an office manager who watched one relay as a runner stopped to light the torch of the next in line.

''This is the closest I'll ever get to an Olympic anything,'' said Marnia Valasquez, who drove 100 miles from her Marana home to see the flame before it headed to Nevada on Wednesday. ''I just had to come.''

The 19-car Union Pacific train took off for Phoenix at dawn to mark the start of a 42-city, whistle-stop tour that will end in Chicago on June 3.

The train will carry the flame along rail segments as part of the relay's 15,000-mile journey from Los Angeles to Atlanta, where the Olympics begin July 19.

The torch relay began Saturday in Los Angeles, and bicyclists carried the flame to the Arizona border Monday night. A series of relay runners then brought it into Yuma.

Other runners here ranged from the famous, such as Phoenix Suns point guard Kevin Johnson, to doctors, bankers and grade-school teachers.