▲ The flame begins its journey through Greece to arrive in Marseille on May 8, and then travel throughout France. Ap Photo
Ap, Afp, Reuters y Europa Press
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, April 17, 2024, p. a10
Olympia. Even without help from Apollo, the fire that will burn in the Olympic Games was lit yesterday, 100 days before Paris 2024 opens.
In front of the temple of Hera, clouds thwarted efforts to get a flame in the traditional way, in which an actress dressed as a Greek priestess uses the sun to light a silver torch after offering a symbolic prayer to Apollo, the ancient Greek god of sun.
Instead, a reserve flame was used, which had been lit in the same place on Monday, during the dress rehearsal.
Normally, one of the priestesses tilts the fuel-filled torch over a parabolic mirror that concentrates the sun’s rays and ignites the fire. But this time she didn’t even try.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the German Thomas Bach, insisted on the message of hope transmitted by the Olympic fire, a symbol of peace in ancient times and lit in an international context of tension.
In these difficult times with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hatred, aggression and negative news, he said in the presence of the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Thousands of spectators from all over the world filled Olympia for the event among ruins of temples and sports venues, where the Games were held between 776 BC and 393 AD.
The first bearer of the torch was the Greek rower Stefanos Douskos, gold medalist in Tokyo 2020. In Greece, 600 relays will pass the torch, which will travel 5 thousand kilometers through seven islands, 10 archaeological sites and the Acropolis of Athens, where you will spend a night next to the Parthenon.
Once it touches the Athenian port of Piraeus, the flame will be transported on a French sailing ship built the same year that the first modern games were held in Athens (1896). The Belem plans to arrive on May 8 in Marseille, a city founded by Greek settlers 2,600 years ago.
From that date on, the symbol of the Olympics will travel throughout France, where 57 percent of its residents, according to a survey last month, feel little enthusiasm for hosting the event.
Like every two years – due to the alternation between the summer and winter Games – the lighting ceremony took place near the stadium where the young athletes of ancient times competed in the first Games, in the 8th century BC, at a time when the Women were prohibited from participating.
But in Paris, “they will be the first Olympics with perfect parity between women and men,” Bach recalled. The IOC has awarded 50 percent of the Olympic quotas to each gender, he applauded.
2024-04-17 10:08:13
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