Light the fire! 101 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, organized from July 26 to August 11, the legendary Olympic flame will be reborn, Tuesday April 16, on the ancient site of Olympia, in Greece, during a traditional ceremony in front of an audience of officials, broadcast on franceinfo during a special broadcast, from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Follow our live stream.
A rite in a site steeped in history. In the sanctuary of Olympia, in front of the 2,600-year-old ruins of the temple of Hera, the “high priestess”, dressed in a costume inspired by Antiquity, must light the flame in front of some 600 guests, including the IOC President. At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, she will hold out the torch in front of a parabolic mirror. The rays of the sun will then cause the fire to burst forth.
Laure Manaudou, first French torchbearer. The “high priestess”, the Greek actress Mary Mina, will then brandish the torch, led by the first torchbearer, Stefanos Ntouskos, Olympic rowing champion at the Tokyo Olympics. French swimmer Laure Manaudou will succeed her and will thus be the first French relay runner, the Greek Olympic committee announced on Monday. The flame will then begin a 5,000 km journey across Greece over 11 days and will be transmitted to the French organizers on April 26 in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
A countdown has started. In Paris, Emmanuel Macron launched the countdown to the Olympics on Monday by reassuring people about security around the opening ceremony on the Seine. But he also set out fallback solutions, with a ceremony “limited to Trocadéro” or in the Stade de France, in the event of a terrorist threat.