Paris organizers receive Olympic flame in Athens ahead of relay
The Paris Olympics flame has been formally handed to French organizers in the all-marble stadium in Athens where the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896.
Greek water polo player Ioannis Fountoulis, the last in a long line of torchbearers, used the flame to light a cauldron at the Panathenaic Stadium. From there, it was delivered to Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet.
Several thousand fans and tourists sat in the stands of the horse-shaped marble stadium on a sun-drenched afternoon to observe the ceremony.
A few moments of suspense followed as assistants struggled to light the lantern that will carry the flame to France.
“It wants to stay in Greece,” Estanguet joked.
Safely in the lantern, the flame will depart for France on Saturday on a 19th-century sailing ship across the Mediterranean Sea, to make landfall 12 days later in the southern port city of Marseille.
The flame was kindled on April 16 at Ancient Olympia in the Peloponnese, where the ancient games were held for more than 1,000 years from about 776 BC to AD 393.
From Olympia’s ancient stadium, a relay of torchbearers carried it along a 5,000-kilometer route through Greece, which included several islands and an overnight stop on the ancient Acropolis.
The Olympic flame will be housed overnight in a lantern in the French Embassy, to leave the port of Piraeus on Saturday on the “Belem,” a French three-masted sailing ship built in the year of the first modern games in Athens.
An estimated 150,000 spectators are expected to attend the ceremony at the Old Port of Marseille, which will host the Olympic sailing competitions.
The last torch bearer in Marseille will climb on the roof of the Velodrome stadium on May 9. Marseille was founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC. [AP/Reuters]
