The Olympic torch relay in Marseille ended on Thursday, May 9, with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron in the Stade-Vélodrome by Ivorian footballer Didier Drogba. The singer Soprano, the footballer Jenny Perret then the footballer Eric Di Meco had participated, before him, in the relay within the sports arena.
The day’s relay began at the emblematic Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde basilica, where Marseille football legend Basile Boli was the first to carry the torch, which will arrive in Paris for the Games, which will take place July 26 – August 11.
The former French international – sole scorer in the victory of Olympique de Marseille (OM) in the final of the 1993 European Champion Clubs’ Cup – started the relay under the famous golden statue of the Good Mother. Dressed in white, like all the bearers, he then passed the baton, under a big blue sky, giving the “kiss of the torch” to Colette Cataldo, 83, historic supporter of OM, who sang Light the fire, by Johnny Hallyday.
“That’s it, it makes your heart beat and it’s fantastic. It’s the Olympic flame, it’s the symbol of sport, of living together, of everything we can hope for in the world,” commented Basile Boli. “Be careful, your relay will pass very quickly, take advantage of it! “, Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, previously told them.
“We are going to deliver these moments of celebration every day”
“The start is important in sport,” he added. We’re off to a good start…now here we go! Every day we will deliver these moments of celebration and emotion. » Ten thousand torchbearers will follow one another in four hundred cities in France until the opening ceremony on July 26.
Several dozen people went up to the hill to witness this special moment and Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, was present in full regalia. The flame continued its path through the city all day. Marseille and Paris are the only two cities crossed for an entire day by the relay. The first Olympic cauldron was set alight on Wednesday evening in the Old Port by Marseille rapper Jul, in front of 150,000 people, after a maritime parade on the Mediterranean Sea.
