2023-06-23 14:19:23
It is one of the most famous symbols of the Games: the Olympic flame. His route for the Paris Olympics was revealed on Friday, June 23. Mont-Saint-Michel, West Indies, Palace of Versailles, the flame will cross from May 8, 2024 and for two months more than 400 French cities.
This tradition is directly inspired by the rites present in the ancient Olympic Games, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. At the time, in Greece, fire was considered an element of divine origin. It was lit to invoke the gods, then the flame was installed in the sanctuary of Olympia, on the Heraion, the temple dedicated to the goddess Hera.
The flame, however, has not always been a symbol of the modern Games. The first took place in Athens in 1896, but it was not until 1928 in Amsterdam that the flame appeared, seven times later, when the organizers decided to light a cauldron in the Olympic stadium.
parabolic mirror
The flame as we know it today appeared in 1936 in Berlin. The sports theorist and secretary general of the organizing committee Carl Diem, very close to the National Socialist Party, had the idea of setting up a relay in a desire to return to ancient sources. The flame was thus lit in Olympia before heading to Berlin. It was the German athlete Siegfrid Eifrig who, during the opening ceremony, became the first torchbearer to light the cauldron of an Olympic stadium.
Since then, the practice has been continued in all subsequent editions of the competition and has become a tradition. In 1952, during the Olympic Games in Helsinki, the lighting of the flame in Olympia was the subject of a ritual that complied with very precise codes and was even included in the Olympic charter. Rule 13 thus states that “the Olympic flame is the flame which is lit in Olympia under the authority of the International Olympic Committee”.
The flame has since been lit using a parabolic mirror concentrating the sun’s rays by actresses dressed as ancient priestesses. The fire is then carried through a ceramic urn to the Olympia stadium. Thanks to this urn, the torch is lit, then transmitted to the first torchbearer. First transported to Athens, it is then relayed to the city where the Games are organised.
The flame traveled in every possible way imaginable
The first relays were often done on foot (this was the case for Berlin in 1936, or London in 1948). Today, the flame takes transport regularly. As the Olympic Museum website reminds us, “over the past 80 years, the Olympic flame has been carried by hundreds of thousands of people and has traveled in every way imaginable”.
From space to the seabed, via the summit of Everest, the flame has known it all. So that it does not go out, a gas cartridge is most often hidden in the very body of the torch. This year, the flame will burn “biobased gas”said the organizing committee.
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