The Olympic Flame Touching Ceremony ahead of the 2024 Paris Games scheduled for next month in Ancient Olympia will feature a new High Priestess, redesigned priestly attire and a new Ceremonial Music Composer as Greece tries to revamp the traditional ceremony.
The Olympic flame will be lit on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Games. In a traditional ceremony, the actress Mary Mina who will act as Protheria will use a hollow mirror and the sun’s rays to light the torch.
“It’s a great honor for me. I hope to live up to the trust you have shown in me,” Mina said at today’s presentation of the Ceremony at the Hellenic Olympic Committee’s Amphitheater, adding: “I am very lucky to be taking over the reins now.”
The new clothing that Mina and her priestesses will wear will be different from the previous ceremonies and will be two-color (black and white), as opposed to the monochrome white or blue of the past.
After the traditional Touching Ceremony, the Protheatrix will hand over the flame to the first torchbearer, Olympic Rowing Champion Stefanos Dusko, at the edge of the ancient Olympic Stadium for the start of the 11-day Greek Relay. The flame will then be handed over to the organizers of the Paris Games in Athens on April 26 before spending the night at the French Embassy in the Greek capital and then departing the next day for France on a three-masted ship, the ‘Belem’.
The Olympic flame will arrive in Marseille on May 8, with up to 150,000 people expected to attend the ceremony in the southern city’s Old Port before the French leg of the relay begins.
Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC, will host the sailing races.
The French torch relay will last 68 days and culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony of the Games on 26 July.
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