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The Paris 2024 Olympic Games torch was ignited in ancient Olympia as part of a traditional ceremony on Tuesday which kickstarts the final stretch of the seven-year preparations for the Games starting on July 26. Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the high priestess' role, lit the torch with a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror due to cloudy skies.
This ceremony will start the relay in Greece and France. It will conclude with the lighting of the Olympic flame in Paris at the opening ceremony. The French capital will host the Summer Olympics for a third time after 1900 and 1924.
Olympics torch lit in ancient Olympia ahead of Paris 2024
Talking at the Paris Olympics torch lighting ceremony, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said, “In these difficult times we are living through, with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news they are facing day in and day out.”
“We are longing for something which brings us together, something that is unifying, something that gives us hope. The Olympic flame that we are lighting today is the symbol of this hope,” he continued.
There are plan Bs and plan Cs: Macron on possible shift of Olympics opening ceremony
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that the Paris Olympics opening ceremony planned on the River Seine could be shifted instead to the Stade de France citing a security threat. Macron asserted that France’s law enforcement forces will be marshalled for the security of the open-air event.
Speaking to French media BFM-TV and RMC said, “But if we think there are risks, depending on our analysis of the context, we have fallback scenarios. There are plan Bs and plan Cs.”