The French plan to transfer the Olympic Flame from Greece to France sounded really impressive: The transfer is to be carried out by sea on their most emblematic three-masted sailing ship, the “Belem”. Today, however, they are the same ones who see the project as a big risk. The ship will have to cross the Mediterranean for 12 days to reach from Katakolo to Marseille via Athens and with the torch always lit. Except that the Flame has never in its history traveled so many days to reach the country where the Olympic Games are held.
He also never traveled by ship, let alone a sailboat. She always traveled with the safety of the aircraft and always with a spare Flame with her. Perhaps this is the reason that the director of the foundation that manages “Belem”, h Christel de Larose, wanted to place three keepers of the Flame on the ship. In an interview she even admitted that the Flame “It’s always been flown, it’s never arrived by boat, so it’s a first-time thing. Above all, the Flame must not be extinguished. And then no one gets sick, there is no technical breakdown and the weather conditions are favorable.”
The journey of “Belem”
The iconic sailboat already started in France. His schedule calls for stops in Olvia, Sardinia, Catania and Katakolo in Greece, before reaching Olympia. And from there, returning with torchbearers almost throughout the country, it will reach Athens. However, the transfer of the Flame from Piraeus to Marseilles by sea has a highly symbolic character as the two cities have been inextricably linked since antiquity, when their influence on the Mediterranean basin began. Also, Marseille, founded 2,600 years ago, is a former Greek colony and the oldest city in France.
The French presidential couple was to attend the Olympic Flame Touching Ceremony organized by the Hellenic Olympic Committee Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron. However, the Macrons changed their minds and will not come. The absence of President Macron was interpreted by many as another example of the scenario that wants Greek-French relations to have been disrupted lately. One thing is Athens’ refusal to send troops to Western Ukraine, another is the Greek armament programs that with the F-35s were directed towards the American market, and thus Macron distanced himself from his “friend Kyriakos”.
Macron has a job
But what kind of workload did the French president plead not to come to a ceremony that before the Paris Conference on Ukraine he really wanted to attend, not only the Touching of the Olympic Flame Ceremony but also the ceremony of her departure from Greece? As announced by the Élysée, in those days he has “a series of commitments”. In fact, at the time of the Touching of the Olympic Flame ceremony, President Macron, as reported by Paris, will be in the… mountain, specifically in the villages of the Vercors mountain range, south of Grenoble, to inaugurate the anniversary events of the 80th anniversary of the resistance of the Maquis who acted in this area against the then pro-Nazi government of Vichy.
The justification is not unrelated to the political situation. The Far Right in France is gaining ground and Macron wants to stop it ahead of the European elections. Thus, the French president is planning a tour throughout France (on the occasion of the anniversary of the landing in Normandy) with the aim of emphasizing the anti-Nazi and anti-fascist character of his country and of course his government.
The President of the “Paris 2024” Organizing Committee Toni Estangue, the Minister of Sports sends us to the Touching Ceremony of the Olympic Flame Amelie Udea-Kasterathe Greek-born Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrysoula Zaharopoulou and of course the mayor of Paris If Hidalgo. The mayor will even play a leading role, because not only did she promise Parisians to swim in the Seine a few days before the start of the Olympic Games, but when the Flame arrives in Paris, on July 14, the day of France’s national anniversary, she will ask to “stay the night” at the town hall. However, the first “overnight stay of the Flame” will take place on Greek soil, in the building of the French embassy in Athens, opposite the Parliament, a few hours before it leaves for Marseille.
The program
The Touching Ceremony, according to the program, will begin at 11.30 in the morning of April 16 in the presence of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou and with free entry for the public. The Olympic Flame, according to the announcements so far, will be “born” from the front Mary Mina, while the choreography has been inspired and directed by the choreographer Artemis Ignatiouin musical composition Dimitris Papadimitriou, and it will be performed by 35 priestesses and 15 Kouros. The costumes of the Dance performers (which caused so much noise a few days ago) were created by the internationally renowned designer Mary Katrantzou. The Olympic Anthem will be performed by the leading mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Master of Ceremonies will be the Greek-French journalist Nikos Aliagas.
The Olympic gold medalist will receive the Olympic Flame from the hands of Prime Minister Mary Mina Stefanos Duskos to start the torch relay on Greek soil, which will last 11 days, until April 26. On April 26, the day he will leave Greece, Macron sends another representative. This is the foreign minister of France Stéphane Cezournet, lawyer and politician of the Renaissance party, who will even meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs George Gerapetritis.
For the sake of history, as the various writings state, it should be mentioned that in the ancient Olympic Games the Flame rose from the rays of the sun with the help of a concave mirror and remained throughout the Games in the rectory of Olympia, in a altar dedicated to the goddess Hestia. For the ancient Greeks, fire was the generative element of the world and civilization. Finally, and politics…
See here photos from the Dress Rehearsal of the Touching of the Olympic Flame Ceremony
#sea #roads #Flame
