Paris 2024 Olympic flame lit at ancient birthplace of the Games

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of high priestess, lit the torch using a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror due to cloudy skies for the start of a relay in Greece and France. The relay will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame in the French capital at the opening ceremony.

Hundreds of dignitaries and spectators are attending the ritual in the small Peloponnese town in southwestern Greece where the Olympics were born in 776 BCE, and where the ceremony is held every two years for the summer and winter Olympics.

For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic imposed toned-down events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Games, spectators are able to attend the torch relay events.

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The ceremony, conducted at the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, was headed by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo are among the dignitaries attending the event.

The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

During the 11-day relay on Greek soil, some 600 torchbearers will carry the flame over a distance of 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) through 41 municipalities.

Carried by ship

On April 27, the flame will begin its journey to France on board the 19th-century three-masted barque Belem, which was launched just weeks after the 1896 Athens Games.

A French historical monument, the Belem carried out trade journeys to Brazil, Guyana and into the Caribbean for nearly two decades.