Olympics-Paris organisers receive flame in Athens ahead of relay

Paris 2024 Olympics – Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony – Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece – April 26, 2024 Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess gives the torch to President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos during the Handover Ceremony REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki

ATHENS (Reuters) – Paris 2024 Olympics organisers on Friday received the Games’ flame in a handover ceremony in Athens ahead of a 68-day torch relay that will end with the opening ceremony on July 26.

The flame arrived at the central Athens’ Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896, after an 11-day relay across Greece and following the lighting in ancient Olympia last week.

Several thousand fans and tourists sat in the stands of the horse-shaped marble stadium on a sun-drenched afternoon as the head of the Paris Games, Tony Estanguet, received the torch from Greek Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony – Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece – April 26, 2024 Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess, gives the torch to President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos during the Handover Ceremony REUTERS/Louiza Vradi

He carried it out of the stadium and the flame will be kept in a lantern overnight at the French Embassy in the Greek capital.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony – Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece – April 26, 2024 President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos and Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Olympics organising committee hold the olympic flame during the Handover Ceremony REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki

It will leave on Saturday on board the three-masted ship the “Belem” for the French port of Marseille where it will arrive on May 8.

An estimated 150,000 spectators are expected to attend the ceremony at the Old Port of Marseille, which will host the Olympic sailing competitions.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony – Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece – April 26, 2024 Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Olympics organising committee talks during the Handover Ceremony REUTERS/Louiza Vradi

The last torch bearer in Marseille will climb on the roof of the Velodrome stadium on May 9. Marseille was founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony – Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece – April 26, 2024 Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess, holds an olympic torch by the cauldron during the Handover Ceremony REUTERS/Louiza Vradi

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)