The Organizational Challenges and Privileges of the Route of the Olympic Flame: An Interview with Mathieu Caubin

The kick-off of the Olympic Games is approaching and before this competition, another event will enliven the roads of France: the route of the Olympic flame. Mathieu Caubin, originally from Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées), is in charge of its organization. Meeting with a fulfilled man despite overbooked days.

If we had to qualify Mathieu Caubin, we could describe him as a shadow worker. At 32, the individual born in Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées) is one of those responsible for one of the biggest events of the year 2024: the route of the Olympic flame, which precedes the start of the Olympic Games on July 26.

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Mathieu Caubin grew up in the Louron valley. He did all his schooling in the area before leaving for Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) for his higher education. And validates an eco license then a master’s degree at the IAE during which he completes a double degree in Vietnam and then in Thailand.

At the same time, he embarked on the Occitanie cycling route with his twin brother. No wonder, because his father is the director of the association that runs the race. “This is the family story. With my brother, we volunteered on lots of mountain bike races in the Hautes-Pyrénées. On the Route d’Occitanie, we managed the route, the partnerships, the links with the prefectures“ he completes.

An experience that opens the doors to the Tour de France, where he manages the organization of the race as a self-employed person. Same thing for the cycling world championships. With his brother, he landed at the organization of the Olympic flame in September 2022, being recruited by an agency commissioned by Paris 2024.

“The job is relatively the same as on the Route d’Occitanie“he believes that he has become a true specialist in the itinerant sporting event. “It will be 80 days of journey, with links with the police, the SDIS and the organization of a whole caravan: the number of interlocutors is impressive.” A long-term job, “head in the handlebars“, which occupies today “200%“of the spirit of the upper Pyrenees, interspersed with the organization of the Route d’Occitanie 2023 which he does not want to give up.

Mathieu Caubin must make the organizational security link during the 67 stages where the flame will pass. “A monstrous job” recalls the organizer, responsible for managing the first course of the flame in the middle of summer in the country. “It’s completely new. Thehe only event of the Olympic Games to be held in the territory of 90% of the departments and cities we work with are torch relays. It’s going to be crazy for every village“he continues.

His days are full from morning to night. In charge of a team of 15 peopleroute and convoy“, he spends a lot of time in meetings.”I have a lot of visios with the prefectures, the departments. I only travel once a week, especially for the new construction phases of the course“he details.

The security issue is major: France is expected at the turn, particularly after the fiasco of the organization of the final of the Champions League 2022. Mathieu Caubin is aware of this. “You can’t put up barriers over hundreds of kilometers of route, it’s logistically impossible. There is very close attention from State services, with a particular system“he assures, necessarily anxious in the face of potential demonstrations that could disrupt the course of the course.

A responsibility, necessarily, for Mathieu Caubin. But not only. “It is an immense privilege to find myself in this position, I who come from a small valley at the bottom of the Pyrenees” he admits modestly. “This project will not return to France for a long time. I sometimes wonder: what am I going to be able to do after who is going to make me vibrate?” he wonders, savoring the chance he has.

The route of the flame will start on May 9, 2024 in Marseille (PACA). It will pass through Millau (Aveyron), Sète and Montpellier (Hérault) on May 13, Toulouse on May 17 and Auch (Gers) on May 18. Until the end of the course on July 26 on the Seine in Paris, place of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.