Cyrille de la Morinerie // Photo credit: ALAIN JOCARD / AFP 3:46 p.m., March 22, 2024
127 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games, it's time for the dress rehearsal for the Olympic flame journey. A full-scale test takes place in Aube, in Romilly-sur-Seine, a month and a half before the arrival of the real flame in Marseille directly from Olympia, in Greece.
Life-size rehearsal for the Olympic flame. In a festive atmosphere, 90 people take turns this Friday in a simulation exercise from Clairvaux Abbey to Troyes. Here in Romilly-sur-Seine, the bearer, all smiles with his extinguished torch in his hand, has just passed at a speed of four kilometers per hour.
“We are in the home stretch,” says Tony Estanguet
The first to set off this morning, in Nogent-sur-Seine, was Joëlle, 59 years old. Disabled, she has just realized her life's dream: "It's great, it's impressive. I'm so proud of having done it that I believe I can die peacefully, even if she wasn't not lit. It's the most beautiful thing, before retiring, that happened to me."
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All along the route, on the side of the road, in full sun, dozens of curious people are delighted to witness this life-size test, like Cynthia: "Happy to see that she is passing here and looking forward to seeing the real this time pass through our town.” Hundreds of people are mobilized, in particular to ensure security.
A rehearsal attended, enthusiastically, by the boss of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Tony Estanguet: “It’s true that it’s a new excitement, a new stage for Paris 2024. We are in the home stretch, clearly. And that's a real challenge in terms of coordination. We really needed this coordination test." The real Olympic torch relay, with its 11,000 bearers, will begin on May 8 in Marseille.