With less than three months remaining until the Summer Games, the Paris 2024 Olympic flame set sail from Athens on Saturday en route to the southern French city of Marseille.
The flame was lit in ancient Olympia two weeks ago, with Paris Olympic organizers receiving the flame on Friday following an 11-day Greek relay leg.
Laure Manaudou, the first French woman to ever win Olympic gold in swimming (400 free in 2004), was the symbolic first French recipient of the Olympic flame in Greece earlier this month. French Paralympic swimming champion Beatrice Hess also participated in the handover ceremony at Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.
Now the flame will spend 11 days on board a 19th-century ship before arriving in the port of Marseilles, France’s oldest city established 2,600 years ago by Greek sailors. The 68-day French torch relay will begin on May 8 in front of an estimated 150,000 spectators at the Old Port of Marseilles, where Olympic sailing events will be hosted this summer.
Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said that four-time Olympic swimming medalist Florent Manaudou (Laure’s younger brother) will be the first torchbearer in the French part of the torch relay. About 10,000 people will help carry the Olympic flame through more than 450 cities across 65 regions of France. Retired French Olympian Camille Lacourt is among the captains of the 69 collective torch relays, with each group featuring 24 people — including elite and everyday athletes, volunteers, referees, and coaches.
The torch is also expected to visit six overseas territories: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Maritnique, French Polynesia, Reunion, and New Caldeonia. The relay will end in Paris on July 26, when the torch will light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony along the Seine River to signal the start of the Summer Games. About 300,000 spectators are expected to witness the opening ceremony in Paris, highlighted by 160 boats carrying athletes making a 6-kilometer journey down the Seine toward the Eiffel Tower.
Historically, torch relays have seen the Olympic flame travel through multiple countries, but global protests during the Beijing 2008 edition led the IOC to restricted international relays to mostly Greece and the host nation.
Step aboard with the Olympic flame! 🔥⚓
Come behind the scenes on the Belem, the historic French ship carrying the Olympic flame from Greece 🇬🇷 to France 🇫🇷.#OlympicTorchRelay | #Paris2024 | @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/oYokk9LEpj
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) April 29, 2024
Bon Voyage.
How far did Laure have to run with it?