the first bearers of the Olympic flame revealed

“Be up to the challenge”. This is what Pascal Blaise Ondzie, pioneer of the breaking discipline (urban dance style), hopes for, selected to play one of the 69 captains of the collective Olympic torch relays, between May 8 and July 26. “ It represents a lot of responsibility and it puts a lot of pressure on me. And at the same time, it is somehow a confidence that I am given”, he rejoices.

Carrying the flame as a collective is a unique device in the history of the Games. For eight minutes, the captains – some of whom are big names in French sport, such as the swimmer Camille Lacourt and the fencer Laura Flessel – will be the guarantors of the flame and will evolve as a group.

“ These collective relays are teams of 24 people, made up of champions, athletes, people who play sports on a daily basis, volunteers, referees, coaches who are selected by the federations and who are all licensed by these federations, explains Delphine Moulin, director of the Paris 2024 celebrations. For us, it was important to say that everyone who is involved in sport across France can participate in the relay. »

Of the 11,000 people who will experience carrying the torch, 3,000 will participate in a collective relay. The Paralympic flame, whose journey will take place from August 25 to 28, is also affected by this type of relay. Six will be organized by the French Paralympic and Sports Committee to represent the parasporting ecosystem.

Sixty-nine relays

Sixty-nine team relays are organized by 34 Olympic and Paralympic sports federations represented at the Summer Games, which will have two relays each, plus a relay from the Tahitian surfing federation.

“ Having had this project, we brought together our federations. This is a real opportunity to participate in the Games in a different way and bring the federal world back to a very positive vision. », Estimates Marie-Françoise Potereau, vice-president of the French cycling federation, while the governance of the French sports movement has gone through numerous crises in recent years.

Between May 8, his arrival in Marseille after crossing the Mediterranean aboard the Belem came from Olympia, Greece, where it will be lit, and until July 26, the Olympic flame will pass through more than four hundred French cities. Sixty-five stopover towns will mark its route.

The flame will pass through emblematic sites

“People can see the Paris 2024 Games from very far away. But there, through this torch relay, it is the Games that will come to them,” advances Yohan Penel, president of the French badminton federation, whose collective relays will take place in Seine-Maritime and Haute-Garonne. “These are not the Ile-de-France Games but the Games for all of France “, he emphasizes.

Iconic national sites will welcome the Olympic flame. The latter will light up the Lascaux caves during the relay organized by the fencing federation. But also Mont-Saint-Michel, with the cycling collective.

Certain territories were chosen by the federations because of the symbolism they represent for their discipline. Like the second collective relay of the cycling federation, which will take place in Vaucluse. “The region is known throughout the world thanks to Mont Ventoux, which is truly legendary for cycling,” explains Anne-Caroline Chausson.

The Olympic BMX champion was selected to be the captain of this relay which will climb the mountain by bike. Having fallen under the spell of a region conducive to outdoor sports practice during her Olympic preparation for Beijing 2008, she is now based there.

“Vaucluse hosts international events and is home to many BMX clubs. It is a region very involved in the development of cycling and its infrastructure.details Anne-Caroline Chausson. Which is good, because it creates champions. » Like Vauclusiens Romain Mahieu and Tessa Martinez, on the first step of the podium, respectively in the “elite” and “hopeful” categories, during the last world championships in Glasgow, in August 2023.

“A way to pass the baton to the youngest”

Seine-Saint-Denis, cradle of breaking, will host the dance federation relay on Thursday July 25. “ We plan to present on the esplanade of the town hall of Bagnolet a show which would retrace the forty years of French breakdancing, since 1984 », Says the captain of the relay, Pascal Blaise Ondzie.

The latter was a pioneer of the discipline, which moved from the underground to the artistic. “ And now we are entering this new path that is sport », he considers, with the integration for the first time of breaking events in the 2024 Olympics.

If, out of concern about seeing his discipline distorted, he was initially skeptical, the one who is also Ile-de-France referent for the organization of the 2024 Olympics says he is now satisfied with this addition to the program of the event, “because it allows us to highlight our discipline at the international level, and to open the discipline to as many people as possible”, he believes.

Transmission and sharing, it is also from this angle that Anne-Caroline Chausson, captain of one of the two cycling groups, sees the relay. “It’s a way for me, as a former sportswoman, to pass the baton to the youngest, so that the Games make them dream like me, it made me dream. » In remission from cancer diagnosed in 2015 which recurred, his participation in the Olympic relay has a flavor of “victory over life”.

“I can live normally again, participate in important events again. It’s huge, I didn’t believe it anymore, enthuses the cyclist. There were times that were very difficult; so being able to forget those moments, thanks to the Games, thanks to the torch relay, is important to me. It’s very symbolic, and I’m very proud. »