VIDEO. Paris 2024 Olympic Games: the Olympic flame presented by Greece to Tony Estanguet and the French organizers

Tony Estanguet a brandi la flamme olympique. MAXPPP – GEORGE VITSARAS

The flame of the Paris-2024 Olympic Games, lit on April 16 in Olympia, was formally handed over Friday by Greece to Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee, during a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium of Athens.

She will board the three-masted Belem on Saturday to reach Marseille where she will arrive on May 8, before beginning her long journey across France. Tony Estanguet announced that swimmer Florent Manaudou, quadruple Olympic medalist and notably Olympic champion in the 50m freestyle in 2012 in London, would be the first bearer of the flame in the Marseille city.

"It was obvious to us that the flame would return to France in the hands of an Olympian, one of the most emblematic of his generation", said Tony Estanguet during his speech, before receiving the flame from the hands of Spyros Capralos, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee.

Arrival in Marseille on May 8, before starting a tour of France

"How lucky to have one of the most legendary siblings in French sport for this wonderful adventure",< /em> he added, in reference to the fact that his older sister, Laure Manaudou, had been the first French torchbearer in Olympia on April 16. Ten days later, the relay in Greece ended during this ceremony in the historic Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896.