2023-06-23 12:01:45
The mystery of the route of the Olympic flame was lifted on Friday June 23. Mont-Saint-Michel, West Indies, Palace of Versailles: for more than two months from May 8, 2024, the Olympic flame will cross more than 400 French cities, a journey that aims to be ” festive “ despite threats of disruption by activists.
The course is now official. If all local authorities have not responded to the call, partly for some because of the cost deemed excessive, the Olympic flame will still cross 64 territories for more than two months.
The route of the Olympic flame in France from May 8 to July 26, 2023. / Visactu
After being lit on April 16 in Olympia, as tradition dictates, the torch will carry out a nine-day relay in Greece before taking the boat to reach France and not just any boat. The flame will sail on the Mediterranean aboard the mythical Bélem, one of the oldest three-masters in Europe, to arrive on May 8 in Marseille, the date of the start of its journey which will bring it to Paris on July 26.
The place of the lighting of the cauldron in Paris is still not officially stopped, the hypothesis of the Eiffel Tower, several times mentioned, has not been confirmed.
Toulon, Montpellier, Carcassonne…
Between these dates, it will therefore cross 64 territories, including five overseas, 400 cities, 65 of which will close each stage, concerts and sporting events at stake. The course will not be linear, with chip jumps to connect the partner territories.
After arriving in Marseille, it will cross several cities in the south, such as Toulon, Montpellier, Carcassonne, Toulouse, before passing through the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and spinning in Dordogne, then in Charente, and in Vendée.
Arrived in Finistère after going to Mont-Saint-Michel, she will then take another boat from Brest: she will indeed join the Antilles aboard the “Relay of the Oceans”the Maxi Banque Populaire XI trimaran skippered by Armel Le Cléac’h, to spend nine days there, before returning to mainland France.
“Iconic places”
She will then attack France by the east face, starting from the south to arrive in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and finish in the Paris region, visiting in particular the Château de Versailles, or even that of Chambord. “Iconic places”summarizes Paris-2024.
Some 10,000 people will take turns carrying it. New for this French edition, the collective relay: a group of 24 people, including a single bearer, can participate, to represent, for example, a sports federation. They will be 3,000 collectively and 7,000 individually, including people with disabilities, and gender parity, from the age of 15. Each torchbearer will carry the flame for about 4 minutes over a distance of 200 meters.
A third of the flame bearers will be selected by the organizing committee and the sports movement, another third by the sponsors of the torch relay BPCE (bank and insurance) and Coca-Cola, another third by the other partners of the Olympic Games and the last 10% by the territories hosting the flame.
High security
The Olympic flame has not passed through France since 2008 in Paris, a day in April that turned into a fiasco. The passage of the torch in the capital had indeed been enamelled with numerous incidents, against a backdrop of tension between Beijing, organizer of the Olympic Games, and Tibet, many of whose sympathizers had come along the route to denounce China’s attitude.
The issue of security around the torch relay has recently become a little more significant. Securing the route is ensured by the State services which have taken “very seriously”, according to a source close to the Cojo, the threats weighing on the crossing of the flame, in particular because of the social climate born of the pension reform and numerous and scattered calls to disrupt the course. Without wanting to detail the device, the committee assured that the flame would be protected by a “travelling security bubble” who will protect the flame and its carriers.
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