Paris 2024 Olympic flame lit at ancient birthplace of the Games

The sacred flame for the Paris 2024 Olympics was lit Tuesday in Greece’s ancient Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Games, kicking off an epic torch relay stretching from the Acropolis to the South Pacific.

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of high priestess, lit the torch using a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror due to cloudy skies for the start of a relay in Greece and France. The relay will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame in the French capital at the opening ceremony.

Hundreds of dignitaries and spectators are attending the ritual in the small Peloponnese town in southwestern Greece where the Olympics were born in 776 BCE, and where the ceremony is held every two years for the summer and winter Olympics.

For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic imposed toned-down events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Games, spectators are able to attend the torch relay events.

The ceremony, conducted at the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, was headed by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo are among the dignitaries attending the event.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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