As the countdown to the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics reaches 100 days, the Olympic flame was lit on Tuesday, April 16th at the site of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece, marking the official start of the journey of the Olympic flame relay to Paris in July.
Thousands of spectators from around the world filled the ruins of the Hera Temple in Olympia to witness the lighting ceremony of the sacred flame, which was the temple and sports field where the ancient Olympics were held from 776 BC to 393 AD.
The ceremony was led by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
Bach stated that the lighting of the flame was both a “pilgrimage to the past of ancient Olympia and a confidence in our future”.
He said, “In this difficult time… with wars and conflicts increasing, people are tired of all the hate, aggression, and negative news,” and “we long for something that can unite us, something that can bring us hope.”
The traditional lighting ceremony involves priests praying to the ancient Greek sun god Apollo, and then the chief priestess among a group of women priestesses in pleated robes extends a torch full of fuel towards a concave mirror, where the sunlight instantly ignites the torch. However, due to inclement weather that day, the actress portraying the chief priestess had to use a backup flame to light the torch.
Flags of Greece and France were raised during the ceremony, national anthems played, followed by dance and music performances. The Olympic flame was then passed to the first torchbearer, Stefanos Ntouskos, a Greek rower who won gold in the men’s singles sculls at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. He handed over the torch to Laure Manaudou, a French female swimmer who won the 400m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and she will be the first torchbearer for the Paris 2024 delegation.
The torch will depart from the ancient stadium in Olympia, and over 11 days, around 600 torchbearers will relay the flame within Greece, covering a total distance of 5000 kilometers (3100 miles). On April 26th, in a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, the torch will be passed on to the Paris 2024 Olympic organizing committee.
On April 27th, the flame will embark on a journey to France aboard the 19th-century three-masted sailboat “Belem,” expected to arrive in the southern French port of Marseille on May 8th.
Subsequently, the flame will traverse 64 regions of France with 10,000 torchbearers, covering a total distance of 12,000 kilometers, passing through mainland France, as well as overseas territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean, and will arrive at the site of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on July 26th.
IOC President Bach praised Paris organizers for their “excellent preparation” for the Olympics from July 26 to August 11.
On the day of the lighting ceremony, Greek authorities maintained high security around Olympia, with armed police intercepting vehicles and conducting searches for explosives with sniffer dogs on the premises.