Paris 2024 flame to be lit on April 16, relay to visit overseas territories | More sports News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: Organisers announced on Friday that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games flame will be ignited on April 16, signaling the commencement of the countdown to the event scheduled from July 26 to August 11 in the French capital.
The symbolic flame will be kindled at the historic site of ancient Olympia in Greece, where the Games originated, and will remain in Greece until its departure for France from Athens on April 27.
The flame will reach Marseille on May 8 as part of its journey towards the host city, Paris.
The torch relay will stay in metropolitan France – notably going through Montpellier, Corsica, Bordeaux and the Mont Saint Michel – until June 7, when it will leave the port city of Brest by boat for a relay in France’s overseas territory. It will return to mainland France by boat on June 18.
The boat will be skippered by 2017 Vendee Globe winner Armel Le Cleac’h.
“It’s going to be spectacular and will showcase all our territories,” Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said at a ceremony at the French capital’s Sorbonne university.
The flame will then travel through Strasbourg, Reims and Lille among others before a relay in Paris on July 14-15 – which will go through the Pantheon and the National Assembly and Senate (the lower and upper houses of parliament) – with some 400 towns being visited in total.
The relays, which will feature around 10,000 torch bearers, will be captained by Olympic swimming gold medallists Laure and Florent Manaudou and para-athlete Dimitri Pavade.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the flame would visit popular neighbourhoods and that a ‘vigil’ would be organised at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) on July 14.
In a traditional ceremony at the site of the ancient Games, an actress playing a high priestess lights the torch for every Games — summer or winter — using a parabolic mirror before passing the flame to the first torchbearer at the edge of the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia.
Following a brief domestic relay in Greece the flame is then handed over to the host city.
Paris organisers have said they will use a three-masted ship the ‘Belem’ to take it the port city of Marseille, where the sailing competitions of the Olympics will take place.
Usually the flame, held in a safety lantern, is flown by plane to the Olympic Games host city.
Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC, is the starting point of the French leg of the relay.
Paris 2024 organisers have been planning to install the Olympic flame on the Eiffel Tower, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters last month.
Friday’s ceremony provided organisers with a moment of respite after their headquarters were raided by police as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged corruption on Tuesday.
(With Reuters Inputs)
The symbolic flame will be kindled at the historic site of ancient Olympia in Greece, where the Games originated, and will remain in Greece until its departure for France from Athens on April 27.
The flame will reach Marseille on May 8 as part of its journey towards the host city, Paris.
The torch relay will stay in metropolitan France – notably going through Montpellier, Corsica, Bordeaux and the Mont Saint Michel – until June 7, when it will leave the port city of Brest by boat for a relay in France’s overseas territory. It will return to mainland France by boat on June 18.
The boat will be skippered by 2017 Vendee Globe winner Armel Le Cleac’h.
“It’s going to be spectacular and will showcase all our territories,” Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said at a ceremony at the French capital’s Sorbonne university.
The flame will then travel through Strasbourg, Reims and Lille among others before a relay in Paris on July 14-15 – which will go through the Pantheon and the National Assembly and Senate (the lower and upper houses of parliament) – with some 400 towns being visited in total.
The relays, which will feature around 10,000 torch bearers, will be captained by Olympic swimming gold medallists Laure and Florent Manaudou and para-athlete Dimitri Pavade.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the flame would visit popular neighbourhoods and that a ‘vigil’ would be organised at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) on July 14.
In a traditional ceremony at the site of the ancient Games, an actress playing a high priestess lights the torch for every Games — summer or winter — using a parabolic mirror before passing the flame to the first torchbearer at the edge of the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia.
Following a brief domestic relay in Greece the flame is then handed over to the host city.
Paris organisers have said they will use a three-masted ship the ‘Belem’ to take it the port city of Marseille, where the sailing competitions of the Olympics will take place.
Usually the flame, held in a safety lantern, is flown by plane to the Olympic Games host city.
Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC, is the starting point of the French leg of the relay.
Paris 2024 organisers have been planning to install the Olympic flame on the Eiffel Tower, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters last month.
Friday’s ceremony provided organisers with a moment of respite after their headquarters were raided by police as part of a preliminary investigation into alleged corruption on Tuesday.
(With Reuters Inputs)
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