The Olympic flame is heading to France, three months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (OG) in Paris, scheduled for July 26. She is on board the three-masted ship Belem, which cast off on Saturday April 27 at the Greek port of Piraeus, near Athens, beginning its voyage to France.
The sailboat is expected on May 8 in Marseille, from where the torch relay across France will begin, until the opening ceremony. On Friday, the President of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Tony Estanguet, symbolically received the flame in Athens from the President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos.
“Now we are going to bring [her] back to France with this boat, the Belem, which also dates from 1896”, the year of the first Olympic Games of the modern era, “what a fantastic coincidence! “, he exclaimed.
Florent Manaudou first torchbearer in France
The Belem will travel through the Corinth Canal, a 19th-century feat of engineering built with contributions from French banks and engineers. Then, before entering the Old Port in Marseille, the Belem will parade in the harbor of the Marseille city and will be accompanied by 1,024 boats.
Entertainment is planned on land and at sea all day long. Upon his arrival in Marseille, swimmer Florent Manaudou – Olympic champion in the 50m freestyle in 2012 in London – will be the first bearer of the flame. “It was obvious to us that the flame would return to France in the hands of an Olympian, one of the most emblematic of his generation,” explained Tony Estanguet on Friday. Florent Manaudou's sister, Laure – Olympic champion in the 400m freestyle in Athens in 2004 – was also the first French relay runner in Olympia on April 16.
The Olympic torch relay will begin on May 9 in Marseille, with stops planned at the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica, the Cité de la Castellane, Zinedine Zidane's native district, and the Stade-Vélodrome. It will then cross the country, passing through the Antilles and French Polynesia, and will arrive in Paris on the day of the opening ceremony, July 26.
