Stefanos Ntouskos, rowing gold medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, will be the first torchbearer of the Olympic flame for the Paris 2024 Olympics, which is due to arrive in France in less than six months, the Hellenic Olympic Committee announced ( COH) Wednesday in Athens. The Olympic flame ceremony, during which the 26-year-old Greek athlete will light the torch, will take place on April 16 at the ancient site of ancient Olympia.
Around 600 torchbearers will carry the Olympic flame in Greece, covering more than 5,000 kilometers across the country, from Meteora to Kastellorizo, from Delphi to Santorini, before reaching the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on April 26, 2024. The last Greek torchbearers will be the players of the national water polo team, Olympic vice-champions in Tokyo in 2021.
The flame will then leave Piraeus to reach Marseille aboard the famous three-masted historic monument, the Belem. She will arrive in France on May 8, a little over two and a half months before the start of the Paris Olympics on July 26. “Greece and France are united by strong ties of cooperation and solidarity. Paris will organize a superb Olympic Games and show the greatness of the French people,” said Spyros Capralos, president of the COH.