Paris 2024: Lighting the flame of the Games in Olympia, Bach: “Hope for Peace”

“People have had enough of the hate. The Olympic flame is a symbol of hope in these difficult times.” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach renewed the message of peace that will once again carry with him the torch that was lit in Olympia on his long journey towards Paris, the home of the 2024 Summer Games.

101 days after the opening ceremony, the now traditional, but no less poignant, ritual was held in front of the Temple of Hera, and then, in the ancient stadium, the torch was handed over along with the Olympic flame to the first six hundred torchbearers who would carry the torch. Take her to Athens where she will travel to France on May 8

As if to symbolize the dark times the world faces, the overcast skies that dominated the venue of the first ancient Olympic Games prevented the sun's rays from igniting the flame and the “priestesses” used a spare fire they lit yesterday at the dress rehearsal of the ceremony. In Olympia, there were, alongside Bach, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, French Sports Minister Amelie Odea Castera, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Head of the Games Organizing Committee Tony Estanguette. . Bach insisted on the message carried by the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace in ancient times: “With all our hearts we desire something that will bring us together again, something that will give us hope and the Olympic flame symbolizes this hope.” The flame was then transported to the Old Stadium to be handed over to the first torchbearer, Greek Stefanos Netoskos, winner of rowing gold in Tokyo 2021, who handed it over to French Olympic swimmer Laure Manaudou. Six hundred torchbearers will distribute the flame during the eleven days in which it will cross Greece, where it will travel 5,000 kilometers through seven islands, ten archaeological sites and the Acropolis, where it will spend the night next to the Parthenon.

On April 26, the flame will ascend from the port of Piraeus to the Belém, a three-masted ship launched in the year of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, arriving in Marseille, France, on May 8. The symbol of the Games, carried by about ten thousand torchbearers, will cross the whole of France, passing through the West Indies and French Polynesia, arriving in Paris on the day of the opening ceremony, July 26, to light the Olympic burner. Fears of possible attacks on the occasion of the ceremony in Ville Lumiere remain at the heart of the debate after French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday raised a possible alternative plan, and perhaps even two, to the planned parade of boats with athletes. On the Seine River in the event of confirmed security threats. From Olympia, Mayor Hidalgo said: “I only know Plan A. You have to have confidence in the work done. I work on Plan A, I don’t know anything other than Plan A. There are teams of exceptional professionals, solid in which everyone cooperates, the best “To send a message: We are ready and we will welcome everyone.” For Estanguette, a military parade on the Seine was “the main and most likely plan.” The President of the Republic was very clear, “The main goal is to create a unique opening ceremony, which is the first time it will be held outside the stadium, in the center of Paris on the Seine River.”