Paris organizers take delivery of Olympic flame at Greek venue of first modern Games

1 of 11 |

Greece on Friday handed over the Olympic flame to Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Games, at a ceremony at the Panathenaic stadium in Athens, where the first modern games were held in 1896. On Saturday, the flame will board a French three-masted sailing ship to be transported to France.

2 of 11 |

Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, holds the Olympic flame during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

3 of 11 |

Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, right, receives the Olympic flame from Spyros Capralos, head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

4 of 11 |

Actress Mary Mina, playing an ancient Greek high priestess, holds a torch with the Olympic Flame during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

5 of 11 |

Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, holds a torch with the Olympic flame during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Vasilis Psomas)

6 of 11 |

Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, right, holds the Olympic flame while Spyros Capralos, head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, left, applauds during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

7 of 11 |

Beatrice Hess, France’s greatest Paralympic champion, carries the Olympic flame during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France.(AP Photo/Vasilis Psomas)

8 of 11 |

Greek Olympic medalist Ioannis Fountoulis lights the caldron with the Olympic Flame during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

9 of 11 |

Actress Mary Mina, playing an ancient Greek high priestess, gives the torch with the Olympic Flame to the head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

10 of 11 |

Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, waves while holding the Olympic flame during the flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

11 of 11 |

Performers wear different Greek traditional costumes during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, Friday, April 26, 2024. On Saturday the flame will board the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Paris Oympics flame was formally handed to French organizers on Friday in the all-marble stadium where the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896.

Greek water polo player Ioannis Fountoulis, the last in a long line of torchbearers, used the flame to light a cauldron at the Panathenaic Stadium. From there, it was delivered to Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet.

A few moments of suspense followed as assistants struggled to light the lantern that will carry the flame to France.

“It wants to stay in Greece,” Estanguet joked.

Safely in the lantern, the flame will depart for France on Saturday on a 19th century sailing ship across the Mediterranean Sea, to make landfall 12 days later in the southern port city of Marseille.

The flame was kindled on April 16 at Olympia in southern Greece, where the ancient games were held for more than 1,000 years from about 776 B.C. to A.D. 393.

From Olympia’s ancient stadium, a relay of torchbearers carried it along a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) route through Greece, which included several islands and an overnight stop on the ancient Acropolis.

The Olympic flame will be housed overnight in the French Embassy, to leave Athens’ port of Piraeus on Saturday on the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship built in the year of the first modern games in Athens.

The Belem is due in Marseille on May 8, ahead of a relay through France leading to the opening ceremony in Paris.

The Games run from July 26-August 11.

___

AP Olympics https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

1 of 7 |

FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

2 of 7 |

FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

3 of 7 |

FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

4 of 7 |

Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

5 of 7 |

USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

6 of 7 |

Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

7 of 7 |

FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)