The Olympic flame, lit on April 16 in the ancient Greek word Olympia, has just been broadcast to France at the Panathenaic Stadium in the center of the Greek capital.
It was in this historic place, which hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896, that the flame passed into the hands of Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Organizing Committee (COJO), through Spyros Capralos, president of the Greek Olympic Committee.
Tomorrow, the flame will arrive at the gigantic port of Piraeus, near Athens, to board the three-masted Belem and reach Marseille, where an additional 150,000 people are expected to receive it on May 8.
Florent Manaudou will be the first Olympic torchbearer on French soil in Marseille on 8 May, Tony Estanguet announced on Friday 26 April at the torch passing ceremony. The French swimmer will pick her up on board the Belem. take over from the head of France’s swimming team to send him to the Old Port and then light a cauldron in the Phocaean city.
“The symbolism is all the more powerful because his sister Laure was already with us ten days ago in Olympia. First French torchbearer in Greece. First torchbearer in France. What a chance to have one of the most mythical brothers in the French game for this wonderful adventure,” said Tony Estanguet in his impassioned speech.
Former swimmer Laure Manaudou, Olympic champion in the 400m freestyle in Athens in 2004, has been appointed to carry the flame of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after it was lit in Olympia, Greece, on April 16.
Florent Manaudou’s career started strongly in 2012 in London, where he curiously won the Olympic gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle. He showed his ability in the following years by adding 3 podiums at the Olympic Games and world victories. “This participation makes sense because Florent Manaudou is a member of the Círculo de Nageurs de Marseille with which he went to win his titles. Marseille is the city of its center (. . . ) We can’t wait to enjoy this prologue with him,” continued the Paris President 2024.
At 33 years of age, Florent Manaudou enters the final stretch of his Olympic preparation with, for the first time in sight, the French qualifying championship from June 16 to 21.
In Aarseille, the Olympic flame will begin a long relay through some sixty territories, until the opening rite on July 26 in Paris.