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The flame will travel on a 79-day adventure through France and its territories, culminating in Paris with the start of the Olympic Games on July 26.
By Roger Cohen and Ségolène Le Stradic
Roger Cohen reported from Paris. Ségolène Le Stradic reported from Marseille.
In front of a crowd gathered on the seafront and on the heights of the ancient port city of Marseille, the Olympic flame arrived on French soil on Wednesday, beginning a 79-day relay across the country and its territories that will culminate in Paris with the arrival. Start of the Olympic Games. July 26.
Florent Manaudou, France’s Olympic swimming champion in the men’s 50m freestyle in 2012, landed the flame from a historic three-masted Belem. He had left Greece on April 27, taking with him the flame that had been lit days earlier in ancient Olympia. .
After a branch of the French Air Force, known as the “Aerobatic Patrol,” traced the five Olympic rings in the sky, Manaudou accompanied the flame along a transient pier designed to resemble running tracks, in front of a crowd esteemed by the government. The fireworks erupted in plumes of red, white, and blue smoke (the colors of the French flag) as they came ashore.
President Emmanuel Macron watched with a smile, in the joyful atmosphere of a city he loves, the handing over of the torch by Mr Manaudou to Nantenin Keïta, the French Paralympic sprinter. The flame was then entrusted to Jul, a popular rapper from Marseille, who lit the Olympic cauldron to loud applause.
“We needed a strong symbol, a strong symbol that would show the radiant face of France,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Olympic Committee, told France 2 tv about the city founded some 2,600 years ago. “Marseille is a city of sport, hobby and festivities. “
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