The Olympic flame from the Paris Games will arrive in the spring of 2024 in Marseille, where its journey across the country will begin, the organizers announced on Friday February 3.
"It was a fairly natural and obvious choice," said Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Olympics Organizing Committee (COJO), hailing a city "passionate about sport, warm, popular and multicultural".
Marseille will host the sailing events as well as ten meetings of the women's and men's football tournaments, at the Stade-Vélodrome. The full route of the flame to Paris, after its arrival in Marseille, should be announced at the end of May, just over a year from the Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024, said Tony Estanguet.
The flame will arrive aboard the Belem, one of Europe's oldest three-master still afloat, after a ten-day crossing from Greece, where, as in each edition of the Games, it will have previously was lit during a ceremony held in Olympia.
"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.
"Marseille was founded by Greeks 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", explains, meanwhile, the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, in a press release.
