Ten days after the lighting of the Olympic flame on the ancient site of Olympia, a new ceremony was held in Athens this Friday evening. On the program, the handover of this symbolic fire from the Hellenic Olympic Committee to the representatives of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which begin in three months.
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At the heart of the Panathenaic stadium in Athens – renovated for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 – the links between Greece and France were particularly highlighted in a ceremony full of symbols of cooperation between Paris and Athens , reports our correspondent on site, Joel Bronner. On stage, alongside Nikos Aliagas, the most Greek of French presenters, Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer, known throughout the world, performed the anthems of Greece and France.
The flame for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, lit on April 16 in Olympia, was formally handed over to the French Organizing Committee. She will board the three-masted Belem on Saturday to reach Marseille where she will arrive on May 8, before beginning her long journey across France.
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“ We’ve been waiting for so long to be in this Panathenaic stadium which is the legendary stadium of the Olympic Games here in Athens, a few steps from the Acropolis, we collectively experience a crazy emotion, rejoiced Tony Estanguet, the president of Cojo. Here we go, the flame returns home to celebrate the return of the Games, 100 years after the last Games. »
The flame expected in Marseille
Tony Estanguet announced that swimmer Florent Manaudou, quadruple Olympic medalist and notably Olympic champion in the 50m freestyle in 2012 in London, would be the first bearer of the flame in the Marseille city. “ It was obvious to us that the flame would return to France in the hands of an Olympian, one of the most emblematic of his generation. », said the boss of Cojo during his speech, before receiving the flame from the hands of Spyros Capralos, president of the Hellenic Olympic committee. “ How lucky to have one of the most legendary siblings in French sport for this wonderful adventure » he added, in reference to the fact that his older sister, Laure Manaudou, had been the first French torchbearer in Olympia on April 16.
To carry the flame during the last meters of the relay in this legendary enclosure, two French champions, the ice dance skater Gabriella Papadakis, gold medalist at the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, and the former Paralympic swimmer Béatrice Hess had been chosen. The Greek Antigoni Ntrismpioti, double European walking champion, and the captain of the Greek water polo team, Ioannis Fountoulis, silver medalist at the Tokyo Games in 2021, also had this honor.
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After arriving in Marseille on May 8, the flame will begin its journey to France. It will cross the country through 450 cities, also passing through the Antilles and French Polynesia, to arrive in Paris on the day of the opening ceremony of the Games, July 26. The event will be held until August 11 in an international climate marked in particular by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.