One year until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games commences and the Torch is ready.
On 26 July 2024, the Paris Olympic Games commences and concludes on 11 August 2024. The Paris Paralympic Games commences on 28 August and concludes on 8 September 2024. So, a year from now, the 2024 Olympic Games will begin.
But before the events commence, the Olympic Torch Relay will kick off the celebrations to mark the lighting of the Olympic and the Paralympic Flame and culminate in lighting the cauldrons in the main stadium. About 11,000 people will participate in the Olympic Torch Relay. The Torch and the Flame represent a message of peace and unity.
The Olympic Flame will arrive in Marseille in France on 8 May 2024 to open the start of an uninterruped 4-month celebration of the Olympic Torch Relay which will end when the torch lights the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony on 26 July 2024. The flame unites the Olympics and the Paralympics, but the Torch will ignite a new cauldron at the Paralympics on 28 August 2024 until the end of competitions at the Paralympics Closing Ceremony on 8 September 2024 when the flame will be put out. The flame stays alight throughout both the Olympics and Paralympics.
French designer, Mathieu Lehanneur, has been chosen to design the Torch for the Paris 2024 Olympics Games. His inspiration is three themes: equality, water, and peacefulness.
EQUALITY … WATER … PEACEFULNESS
Equality represents the unifying emblem, mascots, and Torch that remain the same for both the Olympics and the Paralympics. Equality also reflects the fact that, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, as many women as men will take part in the competitions. Mathieu Lehanneur has made the Torch perfectly symmetrical, both horizontally and vertically, to symbolise this equality.
Water represents the arrival of the Torch via the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Belem. The Torch and the flame will travel across the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean to reach five overseas French territories: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, French Polynesia, and Réunion.
Water also represents the River Seine running through the French capital, Paris. Mathieu Lehanneur has made the Torch with wave, 3D, and vibration effects to produce ripples of movement reflecting light on its surface.
Peacefulness represents the original intention of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a symbol of peace uniting people and nations. Mathieu Lehanneur has made the Torch with curves and rounded lines to suffuse gentleness amid the steel design.
A total of 2,000 Torches will be made – five times fewer than for previous editions of the Olympic Games to reduce its carbon footprint. French steel company, ArcelorMittal, will create the Torches, mobilising its Global Research and Development (R&D) department and three of its French sites to represent the expertise of its workforce.
Photographer: Felipe Ribon, http://www.paris2024.org