IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES – The Phocaean city is the only city, with Paris, to be crossed over an entire day, over eight segments linking emblematic places.
The Olympic torch relay began Thursday in Marseille, in front of the emblematic Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica, where Basile Boli, legend of Marseille football, first brandished the torch, followed in particular by a collective of sportsmen from the European Union and Ukraine. After Marseille, the Olympic “fire” will travel across France to set the cauldron ablaze during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games on July 26 in Paris. Boli, the only scorer in Olympique de Marseille’s victory in the 1993 Champions League final, took off at 8:20 a.m. just under the famous golden statue of the “Good Mother”.
Dressed in white like all the bearers, he then passed the baton, under a big blue sky, giving the “kiss of the torch” to Colette Cataldo, 83 years old, historic supporter of OM, who sang Light the fire Johnny Hallyday. «There you go, it makes your heart beat and it’s fantastic. It is the Olympic flame, it is the symbol of sport, of living together, of everything we can hope for in the world», Commented Basile Boli. “I never would have believed that in my life», exclaimed Colette Cataldo. “Be careful, this will pass your baton very quickly, take advantage of it!», Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee for the Paris-2024 Olympic Games, had previously told them.
“Let’s go !”
«The start is important in sport“, he added. “We got off to a good start…now here we go! Every day we will deliver these moments of celebration, of emotions» with 10,000 torchbearers in 400 cities in France until the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (July 26 – August 11). This morning, the day after the lighting of the first Olympic cauldron by rapper JUL in the Old Port, several dozen people climbed the hill to witness this special moment and Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, was present in ceremonial attire. “VShad a little muscular awakening, but like the Olympics in France, it’s once every 100 years, it was worth it“, smilingly told AFP Julie Landon, 36, who came on foot.
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The torch then continued its journey below, greeted by hundreds of people, many also stationed at the windows of buildings. Like yesterday, when it arrived in Marseille aboard the three-masted Belem under the eyes of more than 200,000 people, an important security system was implemented to protect the torch and its bearers. For this great torch relay, a tradition born during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Marseille will be the only city, with Paris, to be crossed over an entire day, over eight segments linking emblematic places of the city such as the Corniche which dominates the Mediterranean or the large letters MARSEILLE installed Hollywood style at the northern entrance to the city.
Among nearly 200 torchbearers in Marseille, athletes, artists and anonymous people, several VIPs brandished the flame, such as former French team basketball player Tony Parker and skier Cyprien Sarrazin, author of an incredible double this winter. on the legendary Kitzbühel descent. In front of the Mucem, the museum of European and Mediterranean civilizations, on May 9, Europe Day, the skier symbolically received the torch from the Ukrainian gymnast Maria Vysochanska, captain of the day of a collective relay of 28 athletes, with a representative of each of the 27 countries of the European Union.
Solidarity with Ukraine
Among this peloton surrounding the 21-year-old young woman, whose father fought on the front against the Russian invasion, several big names were present, including the French Olympic pole vault champion Jean Galfione or the Polish Anita Wlodarczyk, triple Olympic champion hammer throw title. This relay “is a way of emphasizing our solidarity with Ukraine(…) at a time when they are undergoing a terrible war of aggression», Underlined the French Minister of Sports Amélie Oudea-Castera: “This is a sign of unity, hope and solidarity, we want their victory“. To conclude this first day of the relay, this last segment will take the flame to the Stade Vélodrome, where 10 matches of the women’s and men’s Olympic football tournaments will be held this summer.
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Football will then be in the spotlight with the presence of Jean-Pierre Papin, Ballon d’Or 1991 or Louisa Necib, Marseillaise and former No.10 of the France team. Zinedine Zidane, another illustrious Marseillais whose name had been circulating for the lighting of the cauldron on Wednesday, is however not included in the program. The rapper Soprano, a child from the impoverished neighborhoods in the north of the city, will perform a spectacular relay on the roof of the stadium. Then he will give the flame to Éric Di Meco, 1993 European champion with OM, who will himself hand it to Didier Drogba, another legend of the Marseille club, it is up to the latter to light the second cauldron of these Games. On Friday, the flame will leave Marseille to continue its journey through the Var. Then its path will continue to Paris, via Mont-Saint-Michel, the Landing beaches or the Millau Viaduct.
