It was time. The traditional lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame, which will be held on April 16 in ancient Olympia, the cradle of the Games, will be given a facelift. Nothing very spectacular, but the Greek Olympic Committee, host of the event, seems determined to renew the genre. An actress, Mary Mina, was chosen to slip into the character of the priestess invited to light the torch using a parabolic mirror. The music of the ceremony will also be modernized. Finally, a new set of costumes was designed to dress the actors on stage. They will be in two colors, black and white, and no longer just white or light blue as in previous editions. Once lit by Mary Mina, the flame will be passed on to a former Greek athlete, Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Douskos. The Greek part of the relay will last eleven days. The flame will then be handed over to the organizers of the Paris 2024 Games on April 26 in Athens, where it will spend a night at the French embassy. She will board the three-masted “Belem” the next day for a crossing of the Mediterranean, before arriving in Marseille scheduled for May 8.
