Paris 2024 has revealed the first bearers of the Olympic flame who will participate in the collective relay from May 8 to July 26.
The Olympic Games are fast approaching and the first bearers of the Olympic flame have been revealed by the organizing committee through collective relays throughout France. Each day the relay will be carried out by a team of 24 people – made up of champions, everyday athletes, volunteers, referees, coaches, etc.
In detail, the 34 Olympic and Paralympic federations whose sport is included in the program of the Summer Games, as well as the Tahitian surfing federation, will organize, with the support of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee and the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, 69 collective relays made up of their licensees. Each of the collective relays will be an opportunity to highlight the sport of each of the federations by bringing a touch of the unusual, the spectacular, or raising awareness of Para sport as explained in the press release. “Having had this project, we brought together our federations. This is a real opportunity to participate in the Games in a different way and bring the federal world back to a very positive vision. “, explained Marie-Françoise Potereau, vice-president of the French cycling federation in comments collected by Le Monde.
But be careful, these are simply the captains and not the individual bearers of the Olympic flame, the latter will be revealed in a few weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics.
The captains
Among the names to remember, five-time long course swimming world champion Camille Lacourt will be the swimming relay captain on July 19 in Sarcelles. Taekwondo champion Pascal Gentil will be in Gennevilliers, also near Paris. The gymnast Emilie Le Pennec will be on May 25 in Poitiers (Vienna), the former coach of the French volleyball team Laurent Tillie on May 12 in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), or even Charline Picon, in gold at Rio in 2016 in June. Laura Flessel, Patrick Chilia, Pénélope Leprevost, Guillaume Martin will also be there to carry this flame.
Majestic places
The Lascaux IV site (Dordogne) will be the scene of a relay of fencers, the Falaise de Sisteron (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) will be the playground of the climbing federation while the beach of Omaha Beach (Calvados) will be that of horse riding. For the bike, Captain Guillaume Martin will launch the latter through the streets of Mont-Saint-Michel (Manche) as well as in the ascent of Mont Ventoux (Vaucluse).