Paris organisers receive Olympic flame at Greek venue of first modern Games

The Olympic flame will be housed overnight in the French embassy, to leave Athens’ port of Piraeus on Saturday.

Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, right, receives the Olympic flame from Spyros Capralos, head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern Games were held in 1896, in Athens

The Paris Olympics flame has been formally handed to French organisers in the all-marble stadium where the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896.

Greek water polo player Ioannis Fountoulis, the last in a long line of torchbearers, used the flame to light a cauldron at the Panathenaic Stadium.

From there, it was delivered to Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet.

Actress Mary Mina, playing an ancient Greek high priestess, gives the torch with the Olympic Flame to the head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium in Athens — Actress Mary Mina, playing an ancient Greek high priestess, gives the torch with the Olympic flame to the head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

A few moments of suspense followed as assistants struggled to light the lantern that will carry the flame to France.

“It wants to stay in Greece,” Mr Estanguet joked.

Safely in the lantern, the flame will depart for France on Saturday on a 19th century sailing ship across the Mediterranean Sea, to make landfall 12 days later in the southern port city of Marseille.

The flame was kindled on April 16 at Olympia in southern Greece, where the ancient Games were held for more than 1,000 years from about 776 BC to AD 393.

From Olympia’s ancient stadium, a relay of torchbearers carried it along a 5,000-kilometre (3,100-mile) route through Greece, which included several islands and an overnight stop on the ancient Acropolis.

The Olympic flame will be housed overnight in the French embassy, to leave Athens’ port of Piraeus on Saturday on the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship built in the year of the first modern Games in Athens.

Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, delivers a speech during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium in Athens — Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, delivers a speech during the Olympic flame handover ceremony (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

The Belem is due in Marseille on May 8, ahead of a relay through France leading to the opening ceremony in Paris.

The Games run from July 26-August 11.