The flame that would burn during the span of the Paris Olympics was expected to be lit in a ceremony at the ancient site of the Greek city of Olympia on Tuesday (Apr. 16), as the 100-day countdown to the games commenced.
Agence France Presse reported that the ceremony would be the first time since the delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Games and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games that spectators would be able to attend the lighting ceremony after both mentioned games were held during the previous COVID-19 pandemic.
Some 600 dignitaries were expected to attend this year's ceremony, headed by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
The ancient ritual—which was revived for the modern Olympics in 1936—would see volunteer actresses and dancers portraying the role of ancient priestesses coaxing the Olympic flame into life with the help of a parabolic polished mirror in front of the ruins of the temple of the Greek goddess Hera inside Olympia's ancient complex.
An actress portraying the role of high priestess would use the mirror to concentrate the sun's rays and ignite her torch. An actress portraying the "Hestiada" (a priestess assigned as keeper of the fire) would then light up an urn and bring it to the ancient stadium, where the high priestess would hand it over to a torchbearer along with an olive branch, a universal sign of peace.
The torchbearer, usually a Greek athlete competing in the upcoming Olympics, then carried the flame to the Coubertin Grove on the site of the International Olympic Academy in modern Olympia, where it is used to light an altar beside the monument in which the heart of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, is interred.
2020 Olympics rowing champion Stefanos Douskos was chosen as the first torchbearer for this year's ceremony, while retired French swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won her first gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is strongly tipped to be France's first torchbearer in Olympia, according to sources in Greece.
The flame would then be passed along by some 600 torchbearers in 11 days from Olympia to Athens.
Then, the Olympic flame would make its way to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens to pass it to the host nation's Olympic committee. This year, the handover ceremony will take place on Apr. 26.
Following the ceremony, the Olympic flame will spend the night at the French Embassy in Athens before boarding the Belem, a famous three-masted ship that first launched in 1896, the year of the first modern Olympics, the following day to head for Marseille, France, where it will arrive to great fanfare on May 8.
From there, it would travel through 400 towns and tourist attractions across mainland France and its overseas territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and the Pacific.
Finally, the Olympic flame will arrive in Paris on July 26 for the opening ceremony of this year's Games.
The official Olympics website will provide a video feed, which will go live at 08:15 UTC on Tuesday.
