The sacred flame for the Paris 2024 Olympics was lit Tuesday in Greece’s ancient Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Games, kicking off an epic torch relay stretching from the Acropolis to the South Pacific.
Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of high priestess, lit the torch using a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror due to cloudy skies for the start of a relay in Greece and France. The relay will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame in the French capital at the opening ceremony.
Hundreds of dignitaries and spectators are attending the ritual in the small Peloponnese town in southwestern Greece where the Olympics were born in 776 BCE, and where the ceremony is held every two years for the summer and winter Olympics.
For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic imposed toned-down events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Games, spectators are able to attend the torch relay events.
The ceremony, conducted at the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, was headed by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo are among the dignitaries attending the event.
The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.
During the 11-day relay on Greek soil, some 600 torchbearers will carry the flame over a distance of 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) through 41 municipalities.
Carried by ship
On April 27, the flame will begin its journey to France on board the 19th-century three-masted barque Belem, which was launched just weeks after the 1896 Athens Games.
A French historical monument, the Belem carried out trade journeys to Brazil, Guyana and into the Caribbean for nearly two decades.
France's last surviving three-mast steel-hulled boat, it is expected to arrive in Marseille on May 8.
Ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories.
It will travel through 400 towns and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.
On July 26, it will form the centrepiece of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, which is currently set to take place on the river Seine.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
