“Forever the first.” It is in his words, dear to OM, that the organizers of the Paris Olympic Games announced on social networks that the journey of the Olympic flame in France will begin in the spring of 2024 in Marseille. A first step in a long journey that will take her to the opening ceremony in the capital on July 26. The full route of the flame should be announced at the end of May, just over a year from the Games.
FOREVER THE FIRST ✨
Marseille will be the 1st city ???????? to welcome the flame in 2024! Coming from Athens, the flame will cross the Mediterranean aboard the Belem to launch the Olympic Torch Relay ????
With our official sponsors we are preparing a great party for you! pic.twitter.com/8fBMiymUlh
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) February 3, 2023
“It was a fairly natural and obvious choice”, argues the president of the Paris Olympics organizing committee (Cojo) Tony Estanguet. For him, Marseille is a city “passionate about sport, warm, popular and multicultural” which has a historical connection with Greece – the colony Massalia having been founded by Greeks around 600 BC. During the Olympics, the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture will also host the sailing events as well as ten matches of the women’s and men’s football tournaments, at the Stade Vélodrome.
The flame will arrive in the Old Port aboard the Bélem, one of the oldest three-masters in Europe still sailing. Before that, it will have made a ten-day crossing from Greece, where, as in each edition of the Games, it will have been lit during a ceremony in Olympia.
“After being welcomed on the French coast by an armada of boats, the Bélem will moor, kicking off a great popular celebration on the quays of the city”detail the organizers in a press release. “In sport, to succeed, we often say that you have to get off to a good start, that’s why it’s important for us that it’s a great popular celebration”added Tony Estanguet.
Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille (DVG), welcomed this announcement in a press release: “Marseille was founded by Greeks who came from Phocaea 2,600 years ago: by asking to welcome the flame to our shores, we wanted to reconnect with this great history of sharing, fraternity, diversity and solidarity”.