Paris 2024 is playing the women's card for its torch relay. After choosing Laure Manaudou to be the first French torchbearer in Greece, Tuesday April 16 in Olympia, the COJO announced the names of the last two torchbearers before its departure for France aboard the three-masted Belem. Former Paralympic swimmer Béatrice Hess, medalist twenty-six times during her career, including five times at the Athens Games in 2004 (photo above), was chosen by the organizing committee. Gabriella Papadakis, Olympic champion in ice dancing with Guillaume Cizeron at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, has been selected by Coca-Cola, one of the official sponsors of the torch relay. The two French women will accompany the torch this Friday, April 26 at the Panathenaic stadium alongside Greek athletes Antigoni Ntrismpioti, European champion in the 20 and 35 km walk in 2022, and Ioannis Fountoulis, captain of the silver medal winning water polo team at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
