Paris 2024 Olympic Fires Will Be Turned On In Olympia, Greece

Illustration - Olympic fire lighting in Olympia, Greece. (Between/Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

JAKARTA - Nearly 100 days before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Olympic fire will be lit in Olympia on Tuesday for the torch relay from Acropolis to France.

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic imposed event restrictions on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, spectators could attend the torch relay event.

Sekitar 600 pejabat diperkirakan akan menghadiri upacara pada hari Selasa, dipimpin oleh Presiden Mereklandia Sahellaropoulou dan Presiden Komite Olimpiade Internasional (IOC) Thomas Bach.

The event will feature actresses acting as ancient priests who brought the Olympic fire to life with the help of a poled parabolic mirror in Olympia, southwest of Greece, where the Olympics were born in 776 BC.

America's Soprano Mezzo Joyce DiDonato will perform the Olympic song.

The event will take place in the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Hera Temple, and will start the Olympic torch relay marking the Olympic countdown.

Cloudy weather is expected to occur on Tuesday, but organizers usually held a dress rehearsal the day before as a precaution.

The sport reminded again of the ancient Olympics, when the holy fire burned throughout the Olympics. This tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Olympics.

The first relay runner is the rowing champion of the 2020 Greek Olympics Stefanos Douskos.

Former French swimmer Laure Manadou, who won his first gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, is expected to be Olympia's first torch bearer.

During the 11 days of relays on Greek soil, there are about 600 torch carriers who will carry the fire covering a distance of 5,000 kilometers through 41 cities.

"We have prepared this program for the Tokyo Olympics, but the pandemic does not allow us to implement it," said the chairman of the torch relay committee of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Thanassis Vassiliadis, as broadcast by AFP on Monday.

He added that the level of security at the fire lighting event would be kept "as high as possible" with the police who were "wise but present everywhere."

"No one will be able to enter the event without accreditation," said Vassiliadis.