The Olympic torch started its journey on Tuesday from Greece. The torch relay culminates in the opening ceremony of the Games in Paris on July 26.
The Olympic flame for the Paris Olympics was lit on Tuesday. It traditionally took place in the village of Olympia in Greece, where the first ancient Olympic Games were held 776 years before the beginning of time.
The Olympic flame lighting ceremony and the subsequent torch relay have been part of the Olympic Games since the 1936 Berlin Games.
The idea of the Olympic flame burning during the Games comes from Greek mythology, according to which Prometheus stole fire from the gods for human use.
Fire is ignited by sunlight. It was cloudy on Tuesday, but the Olympic torch was lit on Monday with the help of a backup fire lit by the sun.
The first torch was passed to a Greek rower to Stefanos Ntouskoswho won gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
– This is a great honour. As a Greek, I grew up with pictures of the torch relay. It’s incredible to be here and have a flame that will continue all the way to Paris, Ntouskos said.
He passed the torch to the Frenchman To Laure Manadouwho won the 400m freestyle Olympic gold in Athens 2004.
Towards Paris
The Olympic torch now travels through Greece to Athens and from there across the Mediterranean to Marseille, France.
The torch relay, which symbolizes peace, hope and friendship, is carried mainly on foot, and this time around 11,000 torchbearers participate in it. The running distance is approximately 5,000 kilometers.
The route goes through about 400 cities in France through many places central to French history and culture. Such are, for example, the fortress city of Carcassonne, the Louvre art museum and the Palace of Versailles.
In June, the fire travels by sea to the former French colonies, such as French Polynesia and Martinique, and then returns to mainland France.
Director of the Paris Games Organizing Committee Tony Estanguet is delighted that the games will be held again by the father of the modern Olympics by Pierre de Coubertin in the home country. The last time the Summer Olympics were held in France was one hundred years ago.
– In Paris in 1900, the first women took part in the Olympic Games, and in 1924 the athletes stayed in the Olympic village for the first time. Now we are ready to write a new history, especially from an environmental perspective, Estanguet said when lighting the fire.
The torch will arrive at the opening ceremony of the Games in Paris on July 26, when the Olympics will get underway.
Underwater to space
Over the years, in addition to running, the Olympic flame has been carried forward in special ways and in exceptional places. Before the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics, skiers carried the torch in Norway.
Swimmers have swum with the torch at least before the Grenoble Winter and Mexico Summer Olympics in 1968. The Olympic flame was carried under the Great Barrier Reef before the Sydney Games in 2000.
In 2006, the torch made it to the gondola and a couple of years later to Mount Everest.
In addition to land and sea, the Olympic flame has risen to the sky. The torch was transported for the first time in an airplane before the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
In November 2013, two Russian cosmonauts took the torch that had traveled to the Sochi Games outside the space station ISS for a space walk.
The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics is scheduled for July 26. The competitions last until August 11. broadcasts the competition events on its channels.