Paris 2024 Olympic Games: “The torch relay, a way to animate souls, to create memories, connections and cohesion”

In all regions of France, like here in Troyes, we are preparing to welcome the Olympic torch relay. MAXPPP

Sports sociologist, former director of the sociology laboratory at INSEP, Patrick Mignon takes a lucid and enlightening look at the symbolism of the Olympic torch relay, which arrives in Marseille this Wednesday, May 8.

We feel an expectation behind this Olympic torch relay. What symbolism does it convey ?

Since Coubertin set up the Olympic Games, he and his successors have taken care of the question of rituals. We are still observing a kind of accelerated Coubertinism. We know that behind the sporting exploits, the Olympic Games have served something else for several decades: national prestige, tourist reception, investments… This year, in a somewhat tense French context against a backdrop of depolarization and depression, I have the impression that we are emphasizing the side of national unity, national cohesion. Suddenly the flame takes on importance with this handing over of the baton, from one city to another.

From Everest to Space, these extraordinary stages…

As we move forward into modern times, the torch relays have always sought to push the boundaries of geography and originality. Thus, for the Atlanta 96 Games, the flame traveled aboard the space shuttle Columbia. She returned to space in 2013, before the Sochi Winter Games, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station.

In 2000, before the Sydney Olympics, the Olympic torch was transported underwater by divers, near the Great Barrier Reef, using special equipment.

From the depths, she rose to the top of the world in 2008, for the Beijing Games, taken to the summit of Everest, at an altitude of 8,849 meters.

We cross the seas, we slowly climb towards Paris. A production which is supposed to animate souls, national pride, being together, all these notions which are part of the naivety of the Olympic project but which always give pleasure. It’s also a way of mobilizing the local associative movement, it will create memories. There is this idea that with the flame we will maintain something that we will talk about and which will create a bond.

Patrick Mignon, sports sociologist and former director of the Insep sociology laboratory. P.M.

The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East accentuate this phenomenon?

Yes, especially since the Olympics are an event that will please people despite all the controversies. The little Olympic music works and in this context, we make it work a little more. Our society needs it, it’s quite gloomy, there are doubts about everything and anything. We clearly see, moreover, before each major sporting event, that Popularity polls are filled with people who don't care about sports but have an opinion on the matter. The post-competition surveys on mood and morale will, on the contrary, justify the reasons for organizing it…

Also read: D-100 Olympic Games Paris 2024: one hundred days to convince the whole of France

The criticisms surrounding the organization, transport, security will be swept aside when the Games begin ?

No, it's not going to be swept away. These files, in particular that of security, do not only apply to the Olympic Games. This concerns the government's security policy which ranges from petty crime to the risk of terrorism, with all its range. The question of transport in Paris was not invented by the Olympics either. The parenthesis is just created by sport and by the exploits that will be achieved during this fortnight.

Also read: Paris 2024 Olympic Games: history, symbolism, program… Everything you need to know about the Olympic flame which is arriving in Marseille this May 8