Paris Olympics flame will be lit in Greek birthplace of ancient games – if it’s sunny

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece – Even without Apollo’s help, the flame that will burn at the Paris Olympics was lit Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in southern Greece.

Cloudy skies prevented traditional lighting as an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess uses the sun to light a silver torch – after offering a symbolic prayer to Apollo, the ancient Greek sun god.

Instead, a spare flame was used and lit in the same location on Monday during the final rehearsal.

Typically, the chief of a group of priestesses in long, pleated dresses plunges the fuel-filled torch into a parabolic mirror that focuses the sun’s rays upon her, and the fire spouts forth.

But this time she didn’t even try, going straight to the backup, stored in a copy of an ancient Greek jar. Ironically, a few minutes later the sun shone.

From the ancient stadium of Olympia, a relay of torchbearers will carry the flame more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) across Greece until delivery to the organizers of the Paris Games in Athens on April 26.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the lighting of the flame combined “a pilgrimage to our past in ancient Olympia and an act of faith in our future.”

“In these difficult times… with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, aggression and negative news,” he said. “We long for something that unites us; something that is unifying; something that gives us hope.”

Thousands of spectators from around the world packed Olympia for Tuesday’s event, amid the ruined temples and sports fields where the ancient games were held between 776 BC and 393 AD.

The sprawling site, in a lush valley at the confluence of two rivers, is at its most beautiful in spring, filled with pink-flowering Judas trees, tiny blue irises and the occasional red anemone.

The first torchbearer was Greek rower Stefanos Douskos, the 2021 gold medalist in Tokyo. He ran to a nearby monument that contains the heart of French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the driving force behind the games’ modern revival.

The next runner was Laure Manaudou, a French swimmer who won three medals in Athens in 2004. She handed the position to Margaritis Schinas, a Greek, from the European Union’s top authority.

The flame will travel from the port of Piraeus in Athens to Belém, a three-masted French sailing ship built in 1896 – the year of the first modern games in Athens.

According to captain Aymeric Gibet, the delivery will take place on May 8, in the port of Marseille, in the south of France, a city founded by Greek colonists around 2,600 years ago.

Belém arrived in Katakolo, near Olímpia, on Monday. Spectators included a small, enthusiastic group of tourists from the northwestern French region of Brittany, where the ship’s home port of Nantes is located, waving French and Breton flags.

“We thought it would be a unique opportunity to see the lighting of the flame at the historic site of Olympia,” said Jean-Michel Pasquet from Lorient, near Nantes. “And when we also heard that Bethlehem would carry the flame… we said we should do it.”

But Pasquet said he would have to watch the Paris Games at home.

“For us, it would be really expensive, unaffordable” to go to the sites, he said. “Then let’s watch them on television… from our seats.”

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AP Olympics