The Olympic flame of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will arrive in Marseille on May 8, has just been lit in ancient Olympia, Greece.
Due to the cloudy sky at the site of the first Olympic Games in ancient times, the lighting will not be able to be done with sunbeams as is the ancient tradition, but with a reserve flame that will be stored after Monday’s dress rehearsal.
This level marks the start of an adventure to Marseille and then to Paris on July 26.
In front of the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, the “high priestess,” dressed in an antiquity-inspired costume, lit the flame in front of some 600 guests, the president of the International added. 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 brings us together again, anything that unites us, everything that gives us hope,” he added.
“The Olympic flame we light symbolises this hope,” said the German.
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 ship Belem, which will set sail for Marseille on May 8.
on course
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