New costumes in revamped torch lighting ceremony for Paris 2024
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Actors wear the new costumes and pose with choreographer Artemis Ignatiou ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics flame lighting ceremony.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ATHENS – The Paris 2024 Olympics flame-lighting ceremony which will take place in April will showcase a new high priestess, redesigned costumes and fresh music as Greece looks to revamp the traditional ceremony.
The flame will be lit on April 16 in ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Games. In a traditional ceremony, actress Mary Mina, playing the high priestess for the first time, will use a parabolic mirror and the sun’s rays to ignite the torch.
“This is big honour for me. I hope to live up to the trust you placed in me,” she said during the ceremony’s presentation in Athens on March 12.
“I am very lucky to now take the reins.”
The costumes Mina and her priestesses will wear also break with past ceremonies and will be two-toned – black and white – as opposed to the monochromatic white or light blue costumes of the past.
After the traditional lighting ceremony, Mina will then pass the flame to the first torchbearer, Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Douskos, at the edge of the ancient Olympic stadium for the start of an 11-day Greek relay.
The flame will then be handed over to the Paris Games organisers in Athens on April 26 before spending a night at the French embassy in the Greek capital and then departing the next day for France on board a three-masted ship – the Belem.
The Olympic flame will arrive in Marseille on May 8, with up to 150,000 people expected to attend the ceremony in the southern city's Old Port before the French leg of the relay begins.
Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC, will host the sailing competitions.
The French torch relay will last 68 days and will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame at the Games’ opening ceremony on July 26, which will start at 7.30pm local time.
“We chose that time to make the most of the light,” Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said.
The opening ceremony, a 6km parade along the River Seine attended by more than 300,000, will begin before the sun sets at 9.35pm. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) coordination commission chairman Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant said he is confident Paris 2024 would be in position to deliver an excellent Games.
“We don’t see any challenge that could be an obstacle to the realisation of the extraordinary vision that all the teams have had seven years ago (when Paris was awarded the 2024 Olympics),” he said.
“The Games are just around the corner,” he added, referring to the Olympic flame arriving from Greece in Marseille.
Paris 2024 has already unveiled its official posters and medals. A new arena, in the north of central Paris, has been inaugurated and works have started on some temporary competition sites.
“Everything is going smoothly. We are confident and enthusiastic. We also know, however, that the final straight is key. We’ll stay focused and ambitious,” Beckers-Vieujant added. REUTERS
