The Olympic flame has just been lit in Olympia and will begin a 5,000 kilometer journey across Greece that will last eleven days. At the end of this journey, during which it will be carried by 600 people, the torch will reach the port of Piraeus, south of Athens, and then board the three-masted ship Belen to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Marseille on May 8.
Until then, the honor of carrying the Olympic flame will belong to Gabriella Papadakis. This will happen on April 26 at the Athens stadium during the handover of the Greek committee to Paris 2024. The day before, the torch will be passed to France and will spend the night at the French embassy in Greece. The figure skater, a five-time world champion with her partner Guillaume Cizeron, is one of the few Frenchmen to carry the Greek flame, notably with swimmer Laura Manadou, gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The name Gabriella Papadakis takes on special symbolism due to the Greek origin of the 28-year-old figure skater. Presenter Nikos Aliagas, who holds French and Greek citizenship, is the master of ceremonies for the lighting of the fire, which took place on Tuesday morning.
At the end of March, the figure skater spoke about her 18-month sports break, which, according to her, does not yet know when it will end. The 2022 Olympic champion said he took the distance and perspective “to [s]’to individualize more and think about [elle] “. Because of this break, she and Guillaume Cizeron did not compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in Canada.
Source: Le Parisien
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a keen interest in sports and have written for many different publications. I am currently working as an author at 24 News Recorder. I cover mostly sports news but also write about other topics such as current affairs and politics. I have a strong interest in social media and how it can be used to engage with audiences.
