Paris 2024 unveils torch for next Olympic and Paralympic Games
Baku, July 25, AZERTAC
On Tuesday 25 July, in the headquarters of the Organising Committee, president of Paris 2024 Tony Estanguet along with torch designer Mathieu Lehanneur and production partner ArcelorMittal presented the torch that will be carried by 11,000 people (10,000 for the Olympic Games, 1,000 for the Paralympic Games) during the torch relay that will begin with the first steps of the Olympic Torch Relay in France on 8 May 2024, according to the official website of the Olympic Games.
In a year’s time, and after it has travelled thousands of kilometres, the torch will light the Olympic cauldron at the Opening Ceremony of the next Olympic Games. Then, following two weeks of competition, it will begin a new journey for the Paralympic Torch Relay, lighting the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony on 28 August 2024.
While the two relays will be different, the design of the torch is exactly the same, as Estanguet explained: “Following our logic of building bridges between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the latter already shares the same emblem and mascot as the former. At Paris 2024, we will also have a single torch design.”
“This object embodies every edition of the Games,” he continued during the press conference. “When we look back at history, every torch is more beautiful than the others, each one with its own uniqueness. Every country tries to showcase its creativity and we can see that. It’s an aesthetic object that says something.”
The torch of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is distinguished first and foremost by its champagne colour, which is both unique and luminous. To reflect the upcoming Games, torch designer Lehanneur also drew inspiration from three Paris 2024 symbols: Equality, Water and Peacefulness.
“Equality is symbolised by perfect symmetry,” said Lehanneur. “Water is symbolised by the wave, relief and vibration effects. Peacefulness is symbolised by the gentleness of the curves.”
He also explained the effect of lightness he wanted the torch to reflect.
“We worked like sculptors, we didn’t want to add things. From the initial idea, we instead wanted to come back to the essence of what we were looking for in order to have the least material possible and as much lightness as possible.”
“Designing the torch is a designer's dream,” the winner of the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris, whose works form part of many of the world’s most important public and private collections, explained.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime dream, like an extraordinary encounter with history. Ritualistic and magical in equal measure, the Torch is a mythical object. A symbol of cohesion and sharing, it really does play a key role in the Games. It will travel thousands of kilometres, passed from person to person, on land and sea. For Paris 2024, and for the first time in its history, it plays on perfect symmetry, speaking to us more clearly about equality.”
After being lit by the rays of the sun in Olympia, Greece in accordance with ancient tradition, the Olympic flame will arrive in France after crossing the Mediterranean Sea. On 8 May 2024, the celebrations will begin in Marseille as the four-month Torch Relay begins its journey across the different regions of France all the way to the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
After two weeks of sporting action, the Olympic flame will be extinguished but the torch will live on. As a symbol of the connection between Olympism and Paralympism, it will be lit once again in Stoke Mandeville, the symbolic home of the Paralympic Games, to shine its light on a new relay where it will be carried by 1,000 new torchbearers.
The celebrations will then begin again and at the end of the relay a new flame will ignite a new cauldron during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games on 28 August 2024. Two weeks of intense competition will follow until the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympic Games on 8 September 2024.
“The torch is a more complex, technical and technological object than I first imagined. We attempted to maintain an iconic dimension, which is very symbolic and almost magical. How could we transmit so much energy, so much density and so many messages to something which is not living? The idea was for this object, whether being carried by torchbearers or standing in a museum, to embody and be the absolute symbol of Paris 2024 and what happens at these Olympic and Paralympic Games," Lehanneur concluded.
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