Organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics received the Olympic torch during a special ceremony in Athens, ahead of a 68-day journey that will culminate in the opening ceremony scheduled for July 26. The torch arrived at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, after an 11-day relay in Greece, following its ignition in the ancient city of Olympia last week.
Thousands of fans and tourists gathered in the stadium's stands to watch the ceremony in sunny weather, where Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris Olympic organizing committee, received the torch from Spyros Capralos, president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Estanguet carried the torch out of the stadium, where it will be kept in a lantern at the French embassy in the Greek capital.
The torch will leave Greece today, Saturday, aboard the three-masted ship Bélem to the coastal city of Marseille, France, on May 8. Around 150,000 spectators are expected to attend the ceremony at the old port in Marseille, which will host the sailing events in the Olympics. The last torchbearer in Marseille will ascend to the surface of the Velodrome Stadium on May 9. Marseille was founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea around 600 BC.
