The organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games received the flame of the Games this Friday (26) in a handover ceremony in Athens, ahead of the torch relay that will last 68 days and end with the opening ceremony on July 26.
The flame reached the Panathenaic stadium in central Athens, site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, after an 11-day relay across Greece that began after the lighting in ancient Olympia last week.
Several thousand fans and tourists sat in the stadium’s stands on a sunny afternoon as Paris Games director Tony Estanguet received the torch from the president of the Greek Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos.
He carried it out of the stadium and the flame will be kept in a lantern overnight at the French embassy in the Greek capital.
She will leave on Saturday (27) aboard the three-masted ship “Belem” for the French port of Marseille, where she will arrive on May 8.
Around 150,000 spectators are expected to attend the ceremony in Marseille’s Old Port, which will host the Olympic sailing competitions.
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