The 3,100-mile Olympic torch relay is underway. Here’s what to know about the symbolic tradition.

The Olympic flame has been lit in Olympia, Greece, kicking off the torch relay for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Forward of every Summer season Olympics, the torch is lit within the historic web site the place the video games have been based, connecting the occasion again to its roots.

The torch is carried to the host metropolis by runners and different modes of transportation. This yr, the torch will likely be carried to Athens after which taken on a three-masted sailboat throughout the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille, France. It would journey round France and its islands with athletes till it lands in Paris on July 26 for the opening ceremony of the video games.

Boats will carry the torch to islands like Martinique and French Polynesia. A whole listing of stops is discovered on the Olympics web site and the relay will likely be live-streamed. It would take 68 days to finish the three,100-mile relay.

A choice course of to decide on the whopping 10,000 athletes who will carry the flame started in June 2023. 

The torch by no means goes out in the course of the relay. A brand new torch is designed for every Olympics and it’s specifically made to resist parts. The flame is often fueled by gasoline and is able to burning longer than the relay will take. It rests in a particular cauldron in a single day.

A particular ceremony was held in Olympia on Tuesday, with an actress lighting the flame on the temple of the Greek goddess Hera.

The traditional Olympic video games have been held in Olympia from 776 BC by way of 393 AD and the primary trendy Olympics started in Athens in 1896.

However the symbolic torch wasn’t used till the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and the inaugural relay passed off in 1936 forward of the Berlin Olympics.

The relay has been held for each Summer season Olympics since and is even within the Olympic rule ebook, which states: “The Olympic flame is the flame which is kindled in Olympia below the authority of the IOC.”  

Olympic swimmer Florent Manaudou was chosen as a pacesetter for one of many relays.

“It is unbelievable to be captain. If you find yourself a child discovering the Video games, you see the sporting half but in addition the Olympic torch, which is extremely symbolic,” Manaudou mentioned. “I’m very completely happy to showcase all of the wonderful landscapes we’ve got in France.”