Paris 2024 Torch Relay Will Kick Off Domestic Leg in Marseille

The Paris 2024 Olympic torch relay will begin domestically in the southern metropolis of Marseille, France, organizers have announced. There, the torch will begin its journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic stadium.

The torch will be lit in Olympia, Greece, in a traditional ceremony that uses the sun to ignite the flame. It will then be transported by boat to Marseille on the Bélem, a majestic three-masted vessel that first took to the seas in 1896.

It is the last of the great French ships of the XIX century to still be in use and will connect Athens to Marseille – two great cities with a deep-rooted shared history.

The city of Marseille was founded around 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, which makes it the oldest city in France and one of Europe’s oldest continuously-inhabited settlements.

The full route and dates of the Torch Relay will be revealed in May 2023. The trip will include at the opening ceremony, which will take place in a first-of-its-kind citywide celebration in Paris on July 26, 2024.

While historically, torch relays have seen the symbolic flame of the Games travel through multiple countries, after global protests during the Beijing 2008 relay, the IOC has restricted international relays to mostly Greece and the host nation.

Earlier this week, Paris 2024 organizers announced that they have partnered with French designer Mathieu Lehanneur to create the Olympic and Paralympic torches and cauldrons. The design will be unveiled later in 2023.

The Tokyo 2020 torch was designed after the famous Japanese cherry blossoms and included a number of symbolic elements. The torches were made up of recycled construction waste from the temporary housing used after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The IOC bio on Lenhauuer:

Born in 1974, Mathieu Lehanneur is an internationally renowned French designer. A multi-disciplinary pioneer, he works in a wide variety of creative fields ranging from object to architecture, art to product design, unique hand-crafted items to cutting-edge design technology. His projects combine innovation, magic, design, science, art and an ambition to enhance user well-being**.**

“What a joy to be part of this adventure and what a responsibility to contribute to the history of the Games in this way! Partnering with Paris 2024 to design the torches and cauldrons means giving a visible form to a set of values and transforming a state of mind into iconic objects. Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together… My objective is to take this Olympic motto and add: more beautiful, lighter, more lavish.” Mathieu Lehanneur, designer

Lehanneur’s works stretch across countless fields of expression: projects linked to mobility (hybrid engine boat, foldable electric bike), street furniture, interior design for museums and shops, technological product design, exclusive works, and much more.

An example of his work:

His collaboration with prestigious brands, leading institutions and start-ups has often been characterised by a desire to combine aesthetics and sustainability. His projects include a solar street lighting furniture concept launched during COP-21 in Paris and a plant home air filtration system created in partnership with Harvard University, based on a study developed by NASA. For the latter project, the multi-award-winning designer was given the Best Invention Award by US magazine Popular Science.

At the forefront of French design, Lehanneur’s works can be found in the most prominent public and private collections in the world, including those of the Pompidou Centre and the Paris Museum of Decorative Arts, as well as the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco.

“Objects as symbolic as the Olympic torch are pretty rare to find,” Lehanneur said. “After being lit at the original site in Olympia, Greece, it will travel through hundreds of cities and territories until it reaches Paris in 2024. The torch combines history and humanity. It represents the fragility of a flame that should never stop burning and the race of thousands of torchbearers who share in this symbol of fraternity in the same way we should share a crucial message.

“This is the spirit in which I thought about the torch: as a powerful and magical object. I always try to position my work between handcraft, technology, science and poetry. The torch and cauldron will also follow this path.”