The torch of the Paris Olympic Games It will be handed over this Friday to the French organizers of the event during a ceremony in Athens, before embarking on Saturday aboard the three-masted sailing ship Belem to depart for Marseille.
A symbol of unity and peace, the flame, lit on April 16 in ancient Olympia, must be delivered to the Panathinaiko stadium in the center of the Greek capital after its arrival at 6:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. GMT), according to the official program.
On Friday morning, the torch must travel one last stage from the emblematic site of Marathon, 42 kilometers from Athens.
Since its lighting, the flame has traveled 5,000 km, carried by 600 relays through islands and archaeological sites throughout Greece, such as the Acropolis in the Greek capital.
Two French champions, skater Gabriella Papadakis, gold medalist at the Beijing 2022 Games, and former Paralympic swimmer Béatrice Hess, were chosen to carry the flame during the last meters of the relay at the Panathinaiko stadium.
Papadakis and Hess will be accompanied by two Greek athletes, the walking specialist and double European champion Antigoni Ntrismpioti, and the captain of the Greek water polo team, Ioannis Fountoulis, silver medalist at the Tokyo 2021 Games.
It will be the latter who lights the cauldron and puts an end to the 11 days of relays in Greece.
At the historic Panathinaiko stadium, which hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896, the president of the Greek Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, will hand over the torch to Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Games Organization Committee (OCOG).
The Greek singer Nana Mouskouri will perform the anthems of France and Greece.
The French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, and the deputy mayor of Paris, Pierre Rabadan, will attend this ceremony, which should end around 7:25 p.m. local (4:25 p.m. GMT), according to the organizers.
The flame will then arrive at the large port of Piraeus, near Athens, and embark on Saturday aboard the Belem ship bound for Marseille, in southwestern France, where it is expected to be received by around 150,000 people on May 8.
1,024 boats are waiting in Marseille
“The flame will enter France through the Greek city of Massalia”, declared the deputy mayor of Marseille Samia Ghali on April 16, recalling the founding of the French city by the Greeks 600 years before Christ.
Before entering the Old Port, the Belem will cruise along the coastline of the city of Marseille, and will be accompanied by 1,024 boats. Various entertainment on land and sea are planned throughout the day.
“We have measured things to accommodate 150,000 people in an area between the Old Port, the end of the Canebière (emblematic artery of the city center), the Pharo gardens or the Place des Olivets” also in the center, Ghali explained. The night will end with a concert by local rappers Soprano and Alonzo.
Both the port and the promenade will be 100% pedestrian, “there will be records in all entries“, accurate.
On May 9, the Olympic torch will begin its journey in France through the city, passing by the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica or the Vélodrome football stadium.
It will then cross all of France, also passing through the Antilles and French Polynesia, to arrive in Paris on the day of the opening ceremony of the Games, July 26, which will take place until August 11 in an international context marked by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Source: Gestion
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