Just over 100 days before the opening of the Olympic Games Paris 2024The Calls The Olympic light will be lit in ancient Olympia on Tuesday, a precursor to the start of a tour that will travel from the Acropolis to French Polynesia before arriving in the French capital.
For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the (Winter) Games in Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 to be held without fans, the event can take place without restrictions and with spectators.
About 600 executives are expected to attend the Olympic flame lighting ceremony. The delegation is led by the President of the Greek Olympic Committee, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and her counterpart at the IOC, Thomas Bach.
In this ritual, actresses transformed into ancient priestesses will use a parabolic mirror to bring to life the Olympic flame – a process already known in ancient Greece – in Olympia, southwest of the Greek land where the Games were born in 776 BC . BC
American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will be responsible for singing the Olympic anthem.
countdown has started
The ceremony takes place in the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera and the lighting of the flame starts the countdown for each edition of the games.
The weather forecast calls for cloudy skies for Tuesday, but as a precaution the organizers always carry out a test the day before. But even if it rains, everything is planned for lighting the flame.
The torch ritual was born in ancient times Olympic games, in which the fire burned throughout the event. The tradition returned at the Modern Games, but not until the 1936 edition in Berlin.
The first helper will be 2020 Greek Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Douskos.
Former French swimming star Laure Manaudou, Athens 2004 Olympic champion, will be the first substitute in the Paris 2024 Olympic delegation.
The Olympic flame then begins a long journey until it ends in Paris to announce the start of the Games on July 26th.
During the eleven days that the flame will travel through Greek territory, around 600 auxiliary personnel will carry the Olympic flame over a total distance of 5,000 kilometers to 41 locations.
“We prepared this program for the Tokyo Games, but the pandemic did not allow us to carry it out,” Greek Olympic Committee chief Thanassis Vassiliadis told Kathimerini newspaper last week.
“Maximum level” of security
The official also announced a “maximum level” of security during the ceremony, with police officers being “discreet but present everywhere.”
“No one will have access to the stands without accreditation,” he said.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron started the countdown to the Games this Monday, reassuring security around the opening ceremony in the Seine, but for the first time outlining alternative plans in the event of a terrorist threat.
After arriving at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, site of the first Modern Games in 1896, the fire will be transmitted to the Paris-2024 organizers in a ceremony at which the legendary Nana Mouskouri, 89, is scheduled to perform on the 26th. April.
The next day, the llama will board the sailboat Belem and head to Marseille (southeast France), where it is scheduled to arrive on May 8th.
Then it will embark on a long journey that will take it to more than 400 locations and 12,000 km across French territory both on the European continent and overseas, with the torch passing through the hands of thousands of helpers until it reaches Paris, the Opening Ceremony of the Games, which is scheduled to take place on July 26th in the Seine.
SPRING: AFP