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The Olympic flame of the Paris Olympics was lit at noon on Tuesday at the ancient site of Olympia in Greece, about 100 days before the opening rite on July 26.
Due to the cloudy sky at the site of the first Olympic Games of antiquity, the lighting cannot be done with sunbeams as the ancient culture dictates, and was carried out with a reserve flame during Monday’s dress rehearsal.
After an 11-day adventure in Greece, the flame will be flown to France for the opening rite of the Olympic Games in Paris on July 26.
The flame of the Games, which will last until August 11, was positioned in front of the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, in the cradle of Olympism, in the presence of the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Thomas Bach.
“In these difficult times, when wars and conflicts are multiplying, other people are fed up with hatred,” he said in a brief speech in Olympia.
“In all our hearts we long for anything that will bring us together again, anything that will unify us, anything that will give us hope,” he added.
“The Olympic flame we are lighting symbolizes this hope,” he said.
The president of the Paris Olympic Organising Committee, Tony Estanguet, also saw in those Games “more than ever a force of inspiration . . . for all of us and for future generations” as the world is rocked by crisis.
In Greece, 600 torchbearers will pass by the flame as it travels 5,000 kilometers, seven Greek islands, ten archaeological sites and the Rock of the Acropolis, where it will spend an afternoon by the Parthenon.
In the Greek port of Piraeus, the flame will embark on April 26 aboard the three-masted Belem, which will arrive in Marseille, southeastern France, on May 8.
The symbol of the Olympic Games will then cross the whole of France, passing through the West Indies and French Polynesia.
AFP
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