The Ernest-Wallon stadium, the temple of the Rouge et Noir in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), burst into flames. The tension rises. In the stands, 10,000 people stamp their feet, stand up, clap their hands louder and louder. The crowd gets excited and screams “Toulouse, Toulouse” when rugby player Romain Ntamack, fly half of Stade Toulouse, enters the pitch with the torch of the Olympic flame in his hand.
The penultimate torchbearer of the Olympic flame route which passes through Toulouse this Friday, May 17, passes the torch to the captain of the XV of France, Antoine Dupont. Before lighting the cauldron placed in the center of the pitch, the scrum half crowned best player in the world at XV in 2021 greets the supporters from the stands and corners accompanied by their cheers.
“It’s special to enter a field alone. Usually, there are fifteen of us, with a ball, but it’s an immense pleasure, a very strong moment, full of fervor and enthusiasm,” comments Antoine Dupont, holder of the French men’s team. Sevens rugby at the Paris Olympic Games before disappearing through a door.
The high point of the passing of the relay, started in the morning in Haute-Garonne in Revel, a town of 9,500 inhabitants, has just ended in a climate of jubilation. “We felt pride and happiness”believes, for her part, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, also present in the den of the Ovalie.
“I think it’s moving”
In the middle of the afternoon, the Place du Capitole filled up little by little. Behind a security barrier, sitting on a small foldable stool at the corner of the nerve center of the city and rue du Taur, Monique Courbin reads the newspaper to wait. “I came early out of curiosity and so as not to miss this free event”explains this 82-year-old Toulouse woman, a subscriber to TFC (Toulouse football club) since 1957. “And then it takes me out”she admits.
French flag painted on each cheek, Mathéo Dast-Ladouceur, high school student in first general, skipped French class on Friday afternoon to take the bus, alone, from Castres, the town of Tarn in which he lives, in order to attend the event. “I think it’s moving. Because I see the flame for the first time and surely for the last”justifies this basketball player at the winger position.
Even though he prefers drumming to sport, Raphaël, 9 years old, did not go to school all day, with his teacher’s permission. “I’m happy to see the flame before my friends”announces, shyly, the little boy who came with his dad, Jérémy Drago, from Beaumont-de-Lomagne in Tarn-et-Garonne.
You have 50.33% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.