With great celebration, the Olympic flame lands in France

Marseilles. The Olympic flame of the Paris 2024 Games arrived on French soil this Wednesday, after disembarking in the port of Marseille after having traveled from Greece aboard the Belem, a sailboat with more than a century of history.

The French swimmer Florent Manaudou, holder of four Olympic medals, including a gold in the 50 meters freestyle at London 2012, was in charge of lowering the torch with the call, which thus begins a tour throughout France, including overseas territories, until the opening ceremony of the Parisian Olympic Games, on July 26.

#DayInPictures The Olympic flame approaches the coast of Marseille on a 19th century ship, before docking with the torch that will begin its journey through 64 French territories, in the hands of ten thousand bearers, for its arrival at the inauguration of the next … pic.twitter.com/4fpZArLbop

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Florent Manaudou, originally from Marseille, started the relay of the flame, passing the fire to the Paralympic athletics champion Nantenin Keita, daughter of the Malian musician Salif Keita and who later passed it on to a French rap star, the Marseille-born Jul, who He lit the cauldron located in the same port.

“Paris 2024 has chosen two athletes, one Olympic and one Paralympic, for the arrival of the flame in Marseille. This first relay on French soil symbolizes the ambition to bring together and unite the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11) and the Paralympic Games. (August 28-September 8)”, stressed the Organization Committee of the French event.

Jul (34 years old), who later sang on stage, was the surprise guest at the flame’s disembarkation ceremony, which was attended by the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in the company of his wife Brigitte. Next to them was Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Organization Committee.

Macron highlighted that the event had been “a tremendous success” and hoped that the Games would spark “a moment of unity” in his country.

Among the public, many attendees were happy to attend this symbolic event.

“It is a very special moment for us as Marseillais, who are always there, at the height when there is an event like this,” he declared to the Afp Laurent Pfister, who followed the event in the company of his wife and granddaughter from the Pharo palace.

“It’s magnificent, it’s something very beautiful,” this father was excited when he saw the French flag and the Olympic rings drawn with colored smoke in the air by the pilots of the French Patrol.

79 days before the Games

The arrival of the Olympic fire on French soil occurs 79 days before the opening of the Games, in the midst of an important security device.

Greece had handed over the Olympic flame to France on April 26 at the Panathinaiko stadium in the center of Athens, where the first Olympic Games of the modern era took place in 1896.

The lighting of the flame had taken place on April 16 in the ruins of ancient Olympia, following a ritual from Antiquity. Before boarding the Belem for France, there was a 5,000-kilometer tour of Greece with 600 relief workers, with visits to emblematic places such as the ruins of Marathon or the Acropolis of Athens.

Marseille was proud to be the first French stop for the flame on French soil. Its mayor, Benoît Payan, had declared to the newspaper on Tuesday Provence that his city was going to be “the center of the world” this Wednesday.

Despite the massive presence of Marseillais (about 150 thousand, according to calculations) to receive the Olympic flame, many of them woke up early to have the best positions, the enthusiasm is not unanimous.

Anti-gaming demonstrations

A thousand people had demonstrated early in the afternoon to denounce the “Olympic Games for the rich”, with serious environmental consequences, and to request the exclusion of Israel from the Games, for its actions in Gaza, as was done a few decades before. with the South Africa of apartheid.

The long relay of the flame through France will pass through emblematic places such as the Millau Viaduct, the castles of the Loire, the D-Day beaches and Mont Saint-Michel.

The organizers of Paris 2024 hope that the arrival of the flame will serve to increase the enthusiasm of the French for a “spectacular” and “iconic” event, as its promoters have promised.

“It’s something we’ve been waiting for for a long time. One hundred years after the last Games. The Games are coming home,” the head of the organizers, Tony Estanguet, said on Monday.