The sacred flame for the Paris Olympics was lit yesterday in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Games, in a ceremony inspired by antiquity and marked by messages of hope amid multiple global crises.
“In ancient times, the Olympic Games brought together the Greek city states, even — and in particular — during times of war and conflict,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said.
“Today, the Olympic Games are the only event that brings the entire world together in peaceful competition. Then as now, the Olympic athletes are sending this powerful message — yes, it is possible to compete fiercely against each other and at the same time live peacefully together under one roof,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Owing to cloudy weather, Greek actresses in the role of ancient priestesses used a flame lit in a rehearsal on Monday in the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, near the stadium where the Olympics were born in 776 BC.
Carrying the flame in a pot, Greek actress Mary Mina lit the torch for the first bearer, 2020 Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Ntouskos.
Retired French swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won her first gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, followed as France’s first torchbearer in Olympia.
Officials yesterday said that the Paris Games would set new milestones, following the legacy of the other two prior Olympics held in the French capital.
“These Olympic Games will be younger, more inclusive, more urban, more sustainable. These will be the very first Olympic Games with full gender parity, because the IOC allocated exactly 50 percent of the places to female and male athletes,” Bach said.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic imposed toned-down events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, the ceremony was back with full regalia and spectators.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, French Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea-Castera and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo were present at the ceremony.
American mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato delivered the Olympic anthem.
The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.
During the 11-day relay on Greek soil, about 600 torchbearers are to carry the flame over a distance of 5,000km through 41 municipalities.
The Olympic flame is to be handed over to Paris 2024 organizers in a ceremony at the all-marble Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympic Games of 1896, on Friday next week.
Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, has been invited to perform at the ceremony.
On April 27, the flame is to begin its journey to France on board the 19th-century three-masted barque Belem, which was launched just weeks after the Athens 1896 Games.
France’s last surviving three-mast steel-hulled boat, it is expected to arrive in Marseille on May 8.
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