capricious weather, “high priestess” and designer torch, how will the ceremony take place? – Liberation

After the Tokyo and Beijing editions spoiled by Covid-19, the traditional ceremony which will take place in Olympia, the cradle of Olympism, regains all its symbols.

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This is the day when it shouldn’t rain! Highly codified and filmed by cameras around the world, the ritual of lighting the Olympic flame takes place this Tuesday, April 16 in Olympia, Greece, before beginning its journey to Paris. A quick update on the festivities and their meaning.

Without a match: how will the flame be lit?

After two editions spoiled by restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, for the Tokyo and Beijing Olympics, the traditional ceremony in the cradle of the Olympism regains all its colors and all its symbols. The lighting of the flame for the Paris Games is scheduled to take place around midday local (11 a.m.) in the sanctuary of Olympia, in front of the 2,600-year-old ruins of the Temple of Hera. To do this, a “high priestess”, played by an actress dressed in a costume inspired by ancient Greece, must respect the ritual known to the ancient Greeks.

The sun’s rays are reflected in a parabolic cylindrical mirror, which gives off intense heat to create a flame. The weather forecast predicted large gray clouds for Tuesday in this western region of the Peloponnese peninsula, but early in the morning, a discreet sun peeked over the hills. At the end of the dress rehearsal on Monday, under bright sunshine, a reserve flame was kept in a safety lamp. It can be used to ignite the torch if necessary.

The stadium of the first Games, in the 7th century: where did the ceremony take place?

Like every two years (alternation of the Summer Games and the Winter Games), the ceremony takes place near the stadium where the young athletes of Antiquity played their first Games in the 8th century BC. At the time, women were prohibited from participating, and remained so until the abolition of the ancient Games in 393 AD. The entire sanctuary of Olympia, ravaged throughout history by earthquakes and floods, was dedicated to Zeus and the Games aimed to pay homage to him. At the site, a now-extinct chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of the “god of gods” was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Laure Manaudou, Tony Estanguet, Nikos Aliagas: who will be there?

An audience of officials is expected for the ceremony, including the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Thomas Bach, the president of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and even the president of the Paris Olympic organizing committee, Tony Estanguet and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. Once lit, the torch brandished by Greek actress Mary Mina will be taken to the ancient stadium where it will be given to the first torchbearer, accompanied by an olive branch, a symbol of peace. It is the Greek Stefanos Ntouskos, Olympic rowing champion in Tokyo in 2021, who will be the first torchbearer. The swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won her first Olympic title, in the 400m freestyle, at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, will succeed her and will be the first French relay runner. This ritual in such a place is done “with a lot of humility,” explained Nikos Aliagas, the Franco-Greek television and radio host who will host it, exactly 101 days before the opening ceremony. of the Paris Games, organized from July 26 to August 11. “Symbols are important in Greece. We are […] in the universal because we carry something that does not belong to us, which is a heritage,” he added, affirming that he wanted to be “an intermediary” between Greece and France.

By boat then on foot: how will the flame arrive in France?

The journey of the flame from Olympia to the host city of the Olympic Games is one of the most symbolic events associated with the Games, the torchbearers bringing a message of peace, according to the formula of the International Olympic Committee. But, contrary to what one might imagine, this tradition does not go back to the Olympic Games of Antiquity. The invention dates back to the Berlin Games in 1936, organized by the Hitler regime, and the Olympic Movement recognized its great symbolic value in 1948.

In total, 600 torchbearers will pass the flame during the eleven days when it will crisscross Greece, covering 5,000 kilometers through seven Greek islands, ten archaeological sites and the Rock of the Acropolis where it will spend a night next to the Parthenon. In a press release published this Tuesday, the Paris Olympic organizing committee specifies that the route was designed to celebrate the friendship between France and Greece: “The flame will pass in front of the Pierre de Coubertin monument in Olympia or by the town of Pylos to highlight the historical link to the 1821 naval battle where France fought alongside Greece for its independence. The flame will still pass through Messolonghi, a town whose history inspired Eugène Delacroix for his painting Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi.”

She will finally reach the port of Piraeus, south of Athens, where she will board the three-masted Belem on April 26 bound for Marseille. From May 8, the symbol of the Olympic Games will cross all of France, where it will be protected by “around a hundred police officers and gendarmes”, including the GIGN, the elite gendarme unit, which will be there “all the time” “near”. In France, the flame will be carried in a torch imagined by designer Mathieu Lehanneur who took liberties despite the constraints of strict specifications (a height of 70 centimeters and a weight of 1.5 kg maximum, among others) , drawing an oblong object, a matte part, a shiny part. “The flared shape had never evolved but we were constrained by the ergonomics of the grip,” he explained to Libé last August. Playing with symmetry allowed us to tell something else. But it also had to tell us about the geography of the Games, of the Seine which crosses the capital, which will be the setting for the opening ceremony and the link with Seine-Saint-Denis. Hence the play of undulations and vibrations on the lower part.

The relay must cross “100 emblematic sites”, “more than 400 cities” and five overseas territories. “65 stage towns will close the stage each day.” The territories are supposed to pay 150,000 euros (excluding taxes) to see the flame pass. A security system with an already costed bill: securing the route will cost the Ministry of the Interior one million euros.

For the arrival of the flame in Marseille where 150,000 people are expected, 5,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized. The torch relay will also pass through Paris on Sunday July 14 and Monday July 15. On the program, a short tour of the capital’s emblematic places such as the Pantheon, the Louvre Museum, the Champs-Elysées and the National Assembly on Saturday. Before the opening of the Olympics on July 26.