MARSEILLE:
The Olympic flame arrives in France on Wednesday, where a highly choreographed ceremony and a crowd of 150,000 will be the first major test for organizers and security forces ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.
The transfer of the flame ashore to the southern port of Marseille will mark the start of a 12,000-kilometer (7,500-mile) torch relay across mainland France and the country’s far-flung overseas territories.
Organizers hope the first public spectacle of their much-hyped “flagship” Olympics — just 79 days away — will help generate excitement after a damaging row over ticket prices and ongoing security concerns.
“It’s something we’ve been waiting for a long time,” lead organizer Tony Estanguet told reporters on Monday. “It’s here. A 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 hosted in a century after previous editions in 1924 and 1900.
France finds itself at the heart of the modern Olympic movement after a French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the idea of the Games as practiced by the Greeks until the 4th century BC.
After the Covid-hit edition in Tokyo in 2021 and the corruption-tainted edition in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the Paris Olympics are seen as a momentous moment for sporting extravaganza as a whole.
A measure of public excitement will come when the flame is delivered on Wednesday afternoon from the Belem, a historic 19th-century French tall ship that has made a 12-day journey from Greece.
“We will do beautiful, grand, sober and affordable at the same time,” Marseille mayor Benoît Payan promised before the ceremony, recalling how his small port was founded by Greek traders in 600 BC.
More than 1,000 other boats will accompany Belem’s approach to the port and organizers expect around 150,000 people to watch the flame come ashore at the renovated Marseille marina, which will host the sailing events during the Olympics.
Fireworks and a free concert will conclude the show which will be broadcast live on French television.
In the background, around 6,000 members of the security forces are expected to be on duty as part of extensive security plans that have been put in place at a time when the country is on the highest terror alert.
“It is completely unprecedented for the national police to mobilize so many people on the same day in the same place,” regional police coordinator Cedric Esson told reporters on Monday.
The honor of being the first torchbearer will go to swimmer who won four Olympic medals Florent Manaudou.
Other stars scheduled to take part in the parade, which continues in Marseille on Thursday, include NBA champion basketball player Tony Parker and soccer player Didier Drogba, as well as charity and entertainment figures.
A beach-cleaning charity is boycotting the ceremony to protest Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola, while there is no planned role for Marseille’s most famous sporting son, football legend Zinedine Zidane.
Ultra-tight security will be a constant feature as the torch travels through more than 450 French towns and cities and passes dozens of tourist attractions, including Mont Saint Michel.
About 200 security forces are to be permanently stationed around it, including an anti-terrorist SWAT team and counter-terrorists.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin referred to the risk of protests, including by far-left groups or environmental activists such as the Extinction Rebellion.
Organizers have promised a “spectacular” and “iconic” Olympics, with much of the sport taking place in temporary venues around the City of Light, including the Eiffel Tower and the Paralympics.
Absent a terrorist security scare, the opening ceremony will take place by boat on the River Seine in a radical departure from previous Games that opened in the main stadium.
All the major infrastructure has been completed with only two new permanent sports venues built in an effort to reduce the financial cost and carbon emissions of global excess.
The idea of the torch relay goes back to the ancient Olympic Games, when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games.
The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 11, followed by the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8.
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