With 100 days to go to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the symbolic moment of lighting the Olympic flame took place in Olympia, Greece today. An Olympic tradition of the since the 1936 Games, the flame acts as a link between the ancient and modern Games.
The final countdown is on as the Olympic Flame has been lit. With 100 days until the cauldron comes alive at the Opening Ceremonies for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
After 100 years since the Olympics was last back in the French capital, the country will welcome the Olympic Flame back for the third time on French soil on 8 May in Marseille. The flame will visit over 400 French towns and cities as it criss-crosses the country before making it's way to Paris.
The Hellenic Olympic Committee organised the lighting ceremony, with the Olympic Flame brought to life in the pure ancient Games tradition of the Games of using sun's rays in Olympia.
In a nod to France's strong aquatics' legacy, three-time Olympic swimming medallist and three-time World Champion Laure Manaudou was first French Torchbearer. The Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist in the women's 400m freestyle took the lit torch from the first torchbearer Stefanos Douskos, a Greek rower who won at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
To pay tribute to the origins of the Games, the Flame will being its journey in Greece. Six hundred torchbearers will cover 5,000 km in 11 days while visiting 43 Greek municipalities.
The Flame will pass in front of the Pierre de Coubertin monument in Olympia, and also through the town of Pylos to highlight the historic link with the naval battle of 1821, when France fought alongside Greece for its independence. The route will end with the Flame handover ceremony on 26 April, in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
The Flame will then take to the water, with its French arrival coming in the country's southern port city in Marseille. Ten thousand torchbearers will carry the Flame for the Torch Relay in France, with the group ranging from the greatest champions to anonymous people with extraordinary individual stories.
With the countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games officially underway, the time has come for the public and sports fans to join in on the festivities. You can watch a livestream of the Olympics Flame Lighting Ceremony here.