The full flame course to Paris, after his arrival in Marseille, should be announced at the end of May, a little over a year of the games.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
The Olympic Flame des Games de Paris will arrive in the spring of 2024 in Marseille, where its journey will start across the country, the organizers announced on Friday 3 February.
“It was a fairly natural and obvious choice,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee of the Paris Olympics (Cojo), welcoming a city “passionate about sport, warm, popular and multicultural”.
Marseille will host the sailing events as well as ten meetings of the female and male football tournaments, at the Stade-Vélodrome. The complete flame course to Paris, after arriving in Marseille, should be announced at the end of May, at just over a year of the Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024, said Tony Estanguet.
The flame will arrive aboard the Bélem, one of the oldest three-masted in Europe still afloat, after a crossing of ten days from Greece, where, as during each edition of the Games, It will have previously been lit during a ceremony organized in Olympia.
“In sport, to succeed, it is often said that you have to take a good start, that is why it is important for us that it is a great popular party,” added Tony Estanguet.
“Marseille was founded by Greeks from Phocaea, 2,600 years ago: by asking to welcome the flame on our banks, we wanted to reconnect with this great story of sharing, fraternity, diversity and Solidarity “, explains the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, in a press release.