The Olympic Flame will be lit in ancient Olympia on April 16

The lighting and delivery ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic flame will take place on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. This momentous occasion will mark a significant milestone in the history of the Paris 2024 Games, kicking off the process that will culminate with the cauldron in the French capital. The Olympic Flame for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be ignited in Ancient Olympia, Greece, before being transported across Greece to Athens for the award ceremony with a delegation from the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee at the Panathinaikó Stadium on Friday, April 26 at 5:30 p.m.

After delivery, the flame will spend the night at the French Embassy in Athens, before boarding the next day on the “Belem” to Marseille, in the south of France, where it will arrive on May 8. The event will be broadcast live on Olympic Channel and will be freely accessible.

Then the torch relay will begin, which will spend two months traveling around France, connecting with local communities and generating excitement in the months leading up to the Olympic Games.

The Olympic flame will visit places such as Lascaux (southwestern France), the site of the famous cave paintings; the medieval fortress of Carcassonne (Occitania); the Palace of Versailles and the castles of the Loire Valley. The Olympic flame will also illuminate great works of architecture such as churches and abbeys, including the iconic Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.

During the relay, 10,000 torchbearers will carry the Olympic flame through more than 400 towns and cities, including overseas regions such as Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, French Polynesia and Reunion, before arriving in Paris for the opening ceremony on July 26.

The Olympic torch relay, a modern invention inspired by ancient Greek practices, heralds the start of the Olympic Games and sends a message of peace and friendship throughout its journey. It was first used at the 1936 Games in Berlin.