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.
The Olympic flame of the Paris Olympics was lit at noon on Tuesday at the ancient site of Olympia, Greece. Due to cloudy skies at the site of the first Olympic Games of antiquity, the lighting may not be done with the sun’s rays, as is the case with ancient tradition, and was carried out with a reserve flame saved after Monday’s costume 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 lighting of the flame for the Games, which will run until August 11, took place in front of the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera in the cradle of Olympism, in the presence of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). President Thomas Bach. ” In these difficult times, when wars and conflicts are multiplying, others 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 symbolises this hope,” the German 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 the torch on its 5,000-kilometer journey through seven Greek islands, ten archaeological sites and the Acropolis Rock, 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.