The organizers of the Paris Olympics have planned a large-scale collective relay for the transport of the Olympic flame. From May to July 2024, 10,000 people will take turns so that the flame can cross 64 French territories before reaching Paris for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Holders have not yet been selected.
Published on : 30/05/2023 – 13:48
They will be 10,000 torchbearers to carry the Olympic flame which will cross around sixty French departments from May to July 2024, explained, Tuesday, May 30, the organizers of the Paris Olympics during a press conference.
Swimming champions Laure and Florent Manaudou have been appointed to be “the captains” of this French Olympics torch relay, as well as Dimitri Pavadé (long jump) and Mona Francis (para-triathlon), we have learned on Tuesday.
Kicking off the Olympic Games, the flame, lit in Olympia in Greece as tradition dictates, will arrive by sea in Marseille aboard the three-master Bélem on May 8, 2024. It will then begin a journey through France to to July 26, 2024, opening night of the Paris Olympics.
See you on May 8, 2024 for the arrival of the Olympic flame in Marseille ????
A big popular party will be organized on the Old Port to celebrate together the biggest sporting competition in the world and the millennial history of the founding of our city! pic.twitter.com/fVHqEq8ZbI
— Benoit Payan (@BenoitPayan) April 30, 2023
The president of the organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, made it clear that the place of final lighting was “not stopped” and “that the Eiffel Tower is not stopped as the place of lighting of the basin”.
The relay route in detail will be unveiled on June 23. It will cross 64 French territories, 54 metropolitan departments, 5 overseas territories and 5 territories, such as Montpellier, towns which wished to participate while the departments did not want to. Some departments had deemed the cost of 180,000 euros prohibitive.
The ultra-kept secret of the last torchbearer
New for this French edition, the collective relay: a group of 24 people, including a single bearer, can participate, to represent, for example, a sports federation. They will be 3,000 collectively and 7,000 individually, including people with disabilities, and gender parity, from the age of 15.
Each torchbearer will carry the flame for about 4 minutes over a distance of 200 meters.
A third of the torch bearers will be selected by the organizing committee and the sports movement, another third by the companies sponsoring the torch relay, another third by the other partners of the Olympic Games and the last 10% by the territories hosting the flame.
>> To read also: Before the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the main dates to remember
They may be sports educators, great champions, personalities from a territory, craftsmen with “special know-how” or people “who are committed”. According to the rules of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), elected personalities in office, or religious personalities, cannot carry the flame.
The two companies sponsoring the flame will launch their selection on June 1 and in July. The vast majority of participants will be known at the start of 2024, but the names of the great champions and personalities will be revealed over the months, with the ultra-kept secret of the last torchbearer.
The Paralympic Games torch relay, which will arrive in Paris on August 28 for their opening, will include 1,000 torchbearers and will be shorter.
With AFP
