News on the Olympic torch tour: there will be group relays

In the run-up to Rio 2016, some media outlets questioned the presence of different types of influencers among the relievers on the Brazilian stretch of the torch route.

It was the ideal occasion to remember something of the recent and remote history of this fantastic Olympic ritual.

According to some prestigious historians, the handover of the sacred fire from hand to hand announced the proximity of the great competitions to the rest of the town. Far from being a task reserved for athletes, all the signs point to representatives from various sectors of the community as in charge of the relays.

In modern times, we can attest that the rite involves everything from current or retired athletes, to representatives of sponsors, well-known people from the town through whom the torch passes... or influencers.

Whatever the case may be, this is an event that means that we all, in some way, have something of an Olympic character in our dossier. Obviously, Paris 2024 will be no exception.

In each edition of the Olympic Games, the Organizing Committee has the opportunity to present its own version of the Torch Relay and mark the history of this ancient ceremony in its own way. The 2024 Paris Relay will be decidedly sporty and collective. From the time the fire touches French soil in Marbella on May 8 and during the days of the traditional tour until reaching the cauldron on July 26, there will be group relays. The “relay teams” will join the traditional individual carriers and will consist of 24 people linked to the sport.

The 34 Olympic and Paralympic federations whose sports are on the Summer Games program will organize a total of 69 group relays. In addition, the Tahiti Surf Federation will be represented, a territory that will host surfing in Paris 2024. They will be composed of members of each discipline, with the objective of promoting movement and physical activity as a whole.

The 24-person teams will have a French captain who will carry the flame. Behind the wearer, amateur and elite athletes, volunteers, or even coaches and referees of all generations will march.

The president of the Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet, referred in writing to this conceptual and innovative proposal presented this Wednesday: “It will be a real ode to sport, the team relays will highlight the diversity of those who live for sports and make it a reality every day: established champions, athletes with high hopes in their disciplines, club volunteers, association activists, etc. They will present to the public all the sports of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games program, in emblematic places across the country”.

Each group relay will take place in a spectacular setting, such as Mont Saint-Michel for representatives of the mountain biking community. Omaha Beach will set the stage for the equestrian team’s relay, while Les Sables-d’Olonne and Gruissan prepare to host the sailing team’s relays. The replacement of the surf team is expected to take place in three stages: the first in Biarritz, on the French Basque coast, the second in La Torche in Finistère de Bretagne, and the third organized by the Tahiti Surf Federation on Teahupo’o beach in French Polynesia.

The Organizing Committee also announced who will be the French captains of the group relays, who will be the bearers of the flame at the head of the platoon of their disciplines. In the announcement this Wednesday, the names of cyclist Guillaume Martin, the athletics medalist Manuéla Montebrun, the two-time Olympic fencing champion Laura Flessel, the volleyball coach Laurent Tillie and the Olympic champion of asymmetric parallels Emilie Le Pennec appeared.