100 years after Paris 1924 Flame Visits Coubertin’s Childhood home

100 years after Paris 1924 Flame Visits Coubertin’s Childhood home

by Philip Barker

Exactly 100 years to the day since the 1924 Paris Olympics were officially opened, a large and enthusiastic crowd including local school children watched as double Olympic basketball medallist Sandrine Gruda carried the Olympic Flame on its approach to the Château of Mirville in Normandy, a childhood home of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

Gruda had won silver at London 2012 and had also been part of the bronze medal winning team in Tokyo.

That the Flame should reach the château on the anniversary of the 1924 Opening Ceremony was appropriate. The Games were the last at which Pierre de Coubertin served as IOC President.

Later in the grounds of the château it was taken on by a member of the latest generation of the Coubertin family, Thibaut de Navacelle de Coubertin.

“I was on the verge of tears even before receiving the flame. It’s a lot of emotion, pride, and an honour too,” he admitted to Paris Normandie.

“I also thought a lot about my grandfather who devoted his life to preserving the memory of Pierre de Coubertin. This was the place that he began to think about all education.”

A large banner depicting the Baron had been hung outside the chateau where great grand nephew Jacques de Navacelle de Coubertin, now the owner and custodian of Mirville, was waiting to welcome the Flame.

“It is moving to realise that it is a transmission from generation to generation and that his work is continued amongst the young,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the Flame had started out from Rouen.

Double Olympic judo gold medallist David Douillet had carried the Flame on the Normandy coast. He had won heavyweight gold in both Atlanta and Sydney.

The Torch was also taken by Hugues Duboscq, 100m breaststroke bronze medallist at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 where he won a further bronze in the 200m event.

It ended the day in Le Havre where local rower Margaux Bailleul, who had raced women’s quadruple sculls at the Tokyo Olympics lit the celebration cauldron.