MARSEILLE, France: The Olympic flame arrived in Marseille, a port city in southern France, on Wednesday on board a 19th century ship in front of 150,000 spectators for a ceremony that tests the security arrangements for organisers of the 2024 Paris Games.
The flame was brought from Greece on the three-masted Belem, 79 days before the Olympics begin as the French Air Force display team sprayed the colours of the French flag above the city’s Old Port.
The ship entered Marseille’s Old Port with hundreds of small boats trailing behind and planes from the Patrouille de France display team tracing the Olympic rings in the sky before they returned to paint the red, white and blue of the French flag.
Fireworks were displayed as the Belem docked after a 12-day voyage from Greece, where the flame was lit in ancient Olympia on April 16.
Florent Manaudou, the Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer, carried the torch from the deck of the ship.
He passed it to Paralympic champion sprinter Nantenin Keita, who handed the torch to French rapper Jul to light a cauldron.
Organizers hope the first public spectacle of the Games on French soil will help build excitement after a row over the price of Olympic tickets and security concerns.
President Emmanuel Macron praised the “unprecedented efforts” of security forces in Marseille and said after viewing the flames that he hoped the Olympics would bring France closer together.
France, which last hosted the Olympics a century ago, feels at the heart of the modern Olympic movement after French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin revived the idea of the games as practiced by the Greeks until the 4th century BC.
After the Covid-hit edition in Tokyo in 2021 and the corruption-tainted games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the Paris Olympics are seen as an important moment for the sporting extravaganza.
High security
In the background, around 6,000 security forces are on duty in Marseille as the country is on the highest terror alert.
The torch relay will begin for real in Marseille on Thursday, with Ivorian soccer great Didier Drogba, a former Marseille player, one of the bearers.
The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games will take place on boats on the River Seine on July 26, in a radical departure from past games which have opened in the main stadium.
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However, President Macron said last month that the opening ceremony could be moved if the security risk was too high.
The idea of a torch rally goes back to the ancient Olympic Games, when a sacred flame was kept burning during the games.
The Paris Olympics will continue from July 26 to August 11, followed by the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8.
