After its journey through Greece for 11 days, the Olympic Flame will be handed over to the delegation of the “Paris 2024” Organising Committee on Friday.
The handover ceremony will begin on Friday, April 26, at 6:30 pm (local time) at the Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro) in central Athens, the site of the first modern Olympic Games of 1896.
Internationally renowned artist Nana Mouskouri will participate in the ceremony, while Nikos Aliagas will host the event.
The Olympic Torch will be brought to the Panathenaic Stadium by Greek race walking champion Antigoni Drisbiotis, while the last torchbearer in the Kallimarmaro will be the captain of Greece’s national polo team Ioannis Fountoulis, together with his teammates, who won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
At the end of the event, the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, will hand over the Olympic Torch to the president of the “PARIS 2024” Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet, so that it can continue its journey to Paris.
The Olympic Flame was lit in ancient Olympia on April 16th. Some 600 dignitaries attended the ceremony, headed by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
The ritual included actresses in the role of ancient priestesses coaxing the Olympic flame into life with the help of a parabolic polished mirror in Olympia, where the Games first took place in 776 BC.
The Olympic flame for #Paris2024 is lit!#Paris2024 | @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/1odw4ga9G0
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) April 16, 2024
The Olympic flame was carried by Mary Mina, the priestess, in a choreography inspired and directed by the choreographer Artemis Ignatiou to music composed by Dimitris Papadimitriou and performed by 35 priestesses and 15 kouroi. The costumes for the performers were created by the internationally renowned designer Mary Katrantzou.
Olympic Flame to set sail from Greece to Marseilles
The Olympic Flame for the 2024 Paris Games will take to the seas from its birthplace in Greece, arriving aboard a three-masted tall ship in the French port of Marseille, a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago.
The huge port city of Marseille in southern France was founded by the Greeks back in 600 BC when the first immigrants arrived in the area and established a trading colony. This was at a time when many Phocaeans left their homeland in today’s Turkey (then Greek-speaking Asia Minor) and reached the northern shores of the Western Mediterranean.
Legendary
sailing ship to transport Olympic Flame
The Belem made its 1st voyage in 1896,just a few weeks after the first modern #OlympicGames had finished in #Athens
The Olympic
https://t.co/F71oA3LTza @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/l3i7JiQRqg
— Greece in the Netherlands (@PressGreekEmbas) April 23, 2024
The Flame will arrive in Marseille aboard the historic ship Belem on 8 May 2024 kicking off its journey across France. Fourteen young people aged 16 to 24 have been selected to join the professional crew of the Belem and accompany the Olympic Flame on its Mediterranean crossing. They will join the ship’s professional crew of 16.
The Olympic Flame will arrive in Paris on July 26 for the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games.
