ATHENS (Reuters) – The Olympic flame for Paris 2024 left for France on Saturday aboard the three-masted Belem, marking the final sprint of preparations before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games scheduled for July 26.
The Belem left the port of Piraeus in the morning for an 11-day journey and will arrive on May 8 in Marseille, a city founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea around 600 BC.
The Paris Olympic Organizing Committee received the Olympic flame on Friday from the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) during a handover ceremony organized at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.
Around 150,000 spectators are expected to attend the flame ceremony in the Old Port of Marseille, which will notably host the Olympic sailing competitions. This ceremony will mark the start of a 68-day journey across France.
The last bearer of the flame in Marseille will climb onto the roof of the Vélodrome stadium on May 9 and the relay will end in Paris on July 26 with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Games along the Seine.
(Report by Karolos Grohmann, French version by Claude Chendjou)
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