Crowds watch as the priestesses arrive.
Manaudou named as second Torch Bearer as Olympic ship’s crew prepare to watch Lighting Ceremony
by Philip Barker in Katakalo
2004 Olympic swimming gold medallist Laure Manaudou has been confirmed as the first French Torchbearer in the Paris 2024 Relay tomorrow.
Manaudou who has already been named as a “Captain” of the Relay, is set to receive it from Tokyo single sculls champion Stefanos Ntouskos.
The final rehearsals were conducted with Actress Mary Mina, chosen as the new High Priestess,speaking the invocation to Apollo.
The Ceremony this year has taken the theme of “Rustling of the Sacred Silence,” featuring the music of Dimitris Papadimitrou,
The design of the costumes for all performers is also new. They wear black and white dresses which incorporate a motif representing the columns of the temples of ancient times.
Meanwhile the tall ship Belem, which will convey the Paris 2024 Olympic Flame to Marseille, has arrived at the port of Katakolo where it has docked to allow the crew to attend the Lighting Ceremony at Ancient Olympia on Tuesday.
The vessel, a three masted sailing ship first saw service in 1896, the year the first Olympic Games of the Modern era took place in Athens.
After the Lighting Ceremony, it will continue to Piraeus where it will meet the Flame after the official handover in Athens in just over ten days.
For the journey to Marseille, the crew is to include some 14 young people who hope to make their careers in sailing,
The journey by sailing ship offers an echo of the 1960 Rome Games when the Flame was taken by the training ship Amerigo Vespucci from Piraeus to Syracuse.
The Belem‘s stopover in Katakolo also provides a connection to the 1948 London Games when the Flame was taken by sea for the first time. Back then, a ship of the Hellenic Navy took the Flame to Corfu from where it was transported to Bari by the Royal Navy ship HMS Whitesand Bay.
In 2012, the Belem was moored on the Thames as the Royal Rowbarge Gloriana carried the Flame to Tower Bridge on the day of the Opening Ceremony.
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