The beginning of a long adventure. On Tuesday, in the ancient sanctuary of Olympia, the flame of the Olympic Games, which will be held from July 26 to August 11, was lit. After a magnificent ceremony, she began a great adventure that will take her to Paris on July 26. Their journey from Olympia to the host city of the Olympics is one of the most symbolic events related to the Games, and the relays carry a message of peace.
Six hundred torchbearers will pass the torch during the 11-day tour of Greece, traveling 5,000 kilometers through seven islands, ten archaeological sites and on Friday the Rock of the Acropolis, where it will spend an afternoon by the Parthenon. She, despite everything, arrived at the port of Piraeus, south of Athens, and will embark on April 26 aboard the three-masted Belem bound for Marseille, where some 150,000 more people are expected to greet her on May 8. From this date, the symbol of the Olympic Games will cross the whole of France, passing through the West Indies and French Polynesia, to arrive in Paris on the day of the opening ceremony.
The rite of the Olympic flame took place in front of the ruins of the 2,600-year-old temple of Hera in the cradle of Olympism, under the watchful eye of the Greek presidential guard.
The rite of lighting the flame took place near the stadium where ancient young athletes competed in their first Games in the eighth century B. C. At the time, women were forbidden to participate, and so it remained until the abolition of the Ancient Games in 393 AD. Paris “will be the first Olympic Games with the highest gender parity,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
The entire sanctuary of Olympia, ravaged by earthquakes and floods, was dedicated to Zeus and the Games were intended to pay homage to him. At the site, a statue of the now-defunct “god of gods” was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Due to the cloudy skies at the site of the first Olympic Games of antiquity, warming up cannot be done with the sun’s rays as the ancient culture dictates. The “priestesses”, including actress Maria Mina, dress in long, soft dresses, adorned with the garments of the ancient Greeks.
The torch was carried to the old stadium to be handed over to the first relay, Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos, the Tokyo 2021 Olympic rowing champion, who also lifted an olive branch.
A sailor blouse and a blue, white and red flag painted on her cheeks. Without a doubt, France is there. Among the spectators of the ceremony, many other people had affirmed the tricolor colors and waved a French flag accompanied by a drawing of Belem, on which the flame will sail to reach France.
All smiles, swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won her Olympic name in the 400m freestyle at the Athens Olympics in 2004, a great fortune for Stefanos Ntouskos as the first French relay runner. “It’s a moment and a chance to be here,” she said, evoking her “pride” and “joy” at being the first French torchbearer. I hope all torchbearers feel that way. »
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Thomas Bach, insisted on the message of “hope” conveyed by the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace in ancient times, in a foreign climate marked specifically by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. In all of our hearts, we long for anything that brings us together again, anything that unifies us, anything that gives us hope,” he said.
The president of the Paris Organising Committee, Tony Estanguet, saw in those Games “more than ever a force of inspiration (. . . ) for all of us and for future generations. “