The Paris 2024 Olympic flame will arrive in France on May 8, 2024, kicking off a torch relay across the French territories, the organizers announced on Friday.
In the historical and symbolic setting of the Grand Amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, where Pierre de Coubertin made the founding speech which established the modern Olympic Games, Paris 2024 revealed the 64 territories involved in the relay and the first 165 locations which will welcome the Olympic flame.
“Today, we are proud to unveil the route of the Olympic Torch Relay, which will be more than a circuit around France in 68 days. It will showcase the incredible breadth of our country: Heritage, landscapes, museums, performing arts… And of course, its inhabitants,” declared Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024.
The flame will be lit up in Olympia, Greece on April 16, 2024, followed by a nine-day torch relay before sailing across the Mediterranean Sea from Athens to Marseille on May 8.
A three-mast ship named Belem, which was first used in 1896, the same year the modern Olympics came back, will be used to carry the flame to finish the voyage.
A journey will then officially begin taking in 64 French territories, including five overseas territories, courtesy of 10,000 torchbearers visiting some of the most iconic and historic places in the host country.
“The flame is the energy of a country, the will to be together. The Torch Relay is preparation for the opening ceremony, it’s national storytelling, which brings us together. In this storytelling, there are landscapes, territories, nature, the beauty of the sites and our diverse cultures,” said Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris.
The Paris Olympic Games will open on July 26, 2024.
