Olympic Games: in Athens, Greece transmits the Olympic flame to France

Special envoy to Athens

Frenetic, Athens likes to be distracted. Historical, she also appreciates taking her time. With a symbolic journey hooked to open a sweet evening. And a new chapter. The passage of the Olympic Games always appears as an imposed figure in Greece, land of the Games. With its rites, its history. In the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, the small French delegation experienced the moment of the passing of the Olympic flame with intensity. 90 days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (July 26), the subject of all attention, all concerns, all controversies. With, in mind, the path traveled since Lima in September 2017, the date of the Games. And the one remaining to go. The steps are numerous. Size. They will notably be punctuated by the relay of a precious flame.

After lighting in Olympia on April 16, the torch relay crossed Greece for eleven days to reach Athens (41 cities saw 600 torchbearers pass through). “I didn’t think I would feel so many emotions but it got to me. When I held the torch, when it ignited, something incredible happened. Not an emotion to cry about but an extremely strong feeling. There was a marching band, majorettes, lots of people, I felt the weight of this relay, the strength of Olympism. Something I hadn't measured at that point. We are for or against, but what can bring so many together on earth? Before the Games, because the event has not started but has already started. In Marseille, they are not aware of what is happening. It’s a wave that will cross France. Something is going to happen,” says Éric Monnin, vice-president of Olympics at the University of Franche-Comté and director of Cerou (University Olympic Studies and Research Center), one of the rare French flame bearers in Greece, who ran in Nafplio on April 17.

This Friday, the relay reached Athens, where Greece transmitted the flame of its Games to France. After the anthems sung by Nana Mouskouri, the former swimmer Béatrice Hess (the French champion with the most medals at the Paralympic Games with 26 medals, including 20 gold) and the skater Gabriella Papadakis (gold medalist at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 in the company of Guillaume Cizeron) registered as the penultimate bearers of the flame on Greek soil. Antogoni Ntrismpioti (double European walking champion) and Ioannis Fountoulis (silver medalist in water polo at the Tokyo Games in 2021), lighting the cauldron, before symbolically the president of the Hellenic Olympic committee, Spyros Capralos, transmitted the flame to Tony Estanguet, bringing the event into a new dimension.

The President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games solemnly underlined: “In this historic stadium, the most legendary among all those which hosted the Games, we really have the impression of traveling to through time. Symbol of the link between the ancient Games and the modern Games, present on all the medals awarded to the winners. The Panathenaic Stadium represents the most beautiful of what sport and the Games have to offer us. Within its walls, we measure the honor we have of writing a new page in the great and beautiful Olympic history. » Like Laure Manaudou (gold medalist in the 400m freestyle in 2004), the first French woman to carry the flame during the lighting ceremony in Olympia, Tony Estanguet keeps precious memories of Athens. The president of Paris 2024 won the second of his three gold medals in a canoe (after Sydney in 2000 and before London in 2012).

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games), Pierre Rabadan (deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Seine), David Lappartient (president of the CNOSF) and François Sauvadet (president of the Assembly of the Departments of France) notably made up the French delegation. After the ceremony, the flame, well accompanied, slept at the French embassy, ​​before, this Saturday, embarking from Piraeus on the Belem, accompanied by sixteen young scouts. After twelve days of crossing, the flame will return to France on May 8 in Marseille, the day before OM's Europa League semi-final return in Bergamo against Atalanta. The Phoenician city is preparing for the festival (nautical parade and fireworks are expected and 150,000 spectators announced) and the first bearer will be Florent Manaudou. Then, after a day of parade in Marseille on May 9, more than 450 towns crossed will appear on the map of this incredible relay.

Tony Estanguet presents: “For 69 days, the flame will travel across France. She will follow in the footsteps of great figures and great moments in French history. She will visit the greatest places and cultural institutions in our country. It will highlight the terroirs and gastronomy. It will shine a spotlight on our overseas territories with the Relais des Océans. It will illuminate Corsica and the Aiguilles de Bavella, the citadel of Carcassonne, the Pic du Midi, the Château de Chambord, the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles... Every day, the flame will honor our territories and those who are committed: the Éclaireurs de Paris 2024. They are engineers, entrepreneurs, craftsmen, caregivers, artists, they make French creativity and genius shine in the world, and the flame will illuminate them in turn, the astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the chef Thierry Marx, comedian Jamel Debbouze… But the flame will also be that of everyday heroes and heroines. And I also think of these champions who made us vibrate, scream, cry, and who continue to inspire us years later: Marie-José (Pérec), David (Douillet), Laura (Flessel), and so many still others... Because they are the ones who make the flavor and grandeur of the Games, because they make us dream, the athletes are the heart of our project. We can't wait to experience this prologue of the torch relay with you, in Marseille. »