Paris Games 2024: 150,000 people expected in Marseille as Olympic flame arrives in France to start 12,000km torch relay
- The transfer of the flame onshore in the southern port will mark the start of the relay across France and its territories
- The honour of being the first torch bearer, 79 days from the Games’ start, will fall to Olympic-medal-winning swimmer Florent Manaudou
The Olympic flame arrives on Wednesday in France, where a highly choreographed ceremony and a crowd of 150,000 people will be a first major test for organisers and security forces ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.
The transfer of the flame onshore in the southern port of Marseille will mark the start of a 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) torch relay across mainland France and the country’s far-flung overseas territories.
Organisers are hoping the first public spectacle of their much-hyped “iconic” Olympics – just 79 days away – will help build excitement after a damaging row about ticket prices and ongoing concerns about security.
“It’s something we’ve been waiting for a very long time,” chief organiser Tony Estanguet told reporters on Monday. “It’s here. One hundred years after the last Games, the Games are coming home.”
When the Paris opening ceremony begins on July 26, it will be the first time the city has played host for a century after previous editions in 1924 and 1900.
France sees itself at the heart of the modern Olympic movement after a French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the idea of the Games as practised by the Greeks until the 4th century BC.