After a week-long crossing from the tip of Brittany, the Olympic flame arrived in Guadeloupe on Saturday June 15. West Indian athlete Marie-José Pérec came out of the Maxi trimaran brandishing it proudly. Hundreds of people cheered her, the pride of Guadeloupe, with her three Olympic medals in athletics.
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“ Wow, she’s here at my house! », marvels a child when he sees the flame arrive, carried by Marie-José Perec. A musical arrival, to the sound of the gwoka, the traditional drum of Guadeloupe. Listen to the report from our special correspondent, Valentin Hugues.
The Olympic flame arrives: “Marie-José Perec is actually our flame!”
The flame crossed the Atlantic, a first in the history of the Olympic Games, aboard the Maxi Trimaran Banque Populaire actor and playwright Alexis Michaliksupervised by two offshore racing specialists: Armel Le Cléac’h and Sébastien Josse.
Read alsoThey marked the Olympics: Marie-José Pérec, French legend of the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics
A few hundred people came to the ACTe Memorial in Pointe-à-Pitre to witness the arrival of the Maxi Trimaran carrying the flame and cheered the local child as he got off the boat, torch in hand. Marie-José Perecwas the first torchbearer in Guadeloupe. “ We have given so much to sport, to take the flame on the most majestic boat, here, it’s quite a symbol! It’s a great way to thank and honor Guadeloupean sport, the Guadeloupeans. We’re bringing a little piece of the Games here”said Marie-José Perec, who was welcomed by her 101-year-old grandmother.
Usually, Guadeloupeans leave the Antilles to go to France, and there, this huge event comes to us!!! It’s beyond what I could have dreamed of! We will be forever marked by this magnificent image.
Marie José Perec at the microphone of our special correspondent: “taking the flame here is a great way to honor the people of Guadeloupe”
“ It wasn’t necessarily easy at the start, (…) some were a little anxious, were seasick (…) then everyone managed to take their place” on the boat, told Agence France Presse upon the arrival of the boat on navigator Armel Le Cléac’h. And then we had to constantly watch over the Olympic flame “well protected” and that it was necessary “refeed every eight hours”.
The Olympic flame continued its route through the Guadeloupean archipelago on Saturday, passing through Le Gosier, Basse-Terre and the Saintes archipelago to finish in Baie-Mahault, at the Vélodrome Amédée-Detraux, where the cauldron was lit in end of the night.
The festive arrival this morning in Pointe-à-Pitre set the tone for this stage in Guadeloupe!
The Flame radiates from Pointe des châteaux to CREPS Antilles Guyane via Basse Terre and Le Moule 🤩 pic.twitter.com/4DNpYVKmHq
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) June 15, 2024
Behind the scenes
On one side there is the sea, the music, the photographers and the flame. “ That’s not us », Says a resident of the Carinage district. “ It’s an abandoned place in Pointe à Pitre, and it’s hot », confide residents. In this former working-class neighborhood, residents have the feeling of being invisible; a quick clean-up was carried out for the passage of the flame but the district will fall back into oblivion, they regret.
For the event, some roads were restored, but for Gilberte, it is just a cover-up.
10 FRANCE _Enrobé Passage of the flame in Guadeloupe, behind the scenes
On Sunday, the Olympic flame will set sail again, still aboard the Maxi Trimaran to reach Martinique, where it will arrive the same day around 6:00 p.m. For this second crossing, Armel Le Cléac’h and his co-skipper Sébastien Josse will be accompanied in particular by the Guadeloupean swordsman Laura Flessel and the boss of the Paris Olympics Tony Estanguet.
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