Olympic Flame Arrives Marseille After Twelve Days Sea Journey From Greece

   The barque Belem as it docked at                 Marseille

By Bernadette Idalu

Marseille a Port City in France was agog with festivities, with an orchestra on standby, today, Wednesday, May 8, 2024, which sang the French national anthem, La Marseillaise in welcome of the 19th century three-masted barque Belem sailing ship which docked with the flame meant to highlight the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The hundred year old sailing ship docked at the Mediterranean Port City, twelve (12 ) days after it departed Greece. It was received by an estimated crowd of about 150,000 people who watched, waved and took pictures as the Olympic flame got transferred onto French soil after it docked on the pontoon that reflected an athletics track this evening.

The French Air force engaged in an airshow, displaying deft aerial maneuvers wherein pilots drew the five Olympic rings and then the red-blue-white colors of the nation’s flag.

French Olympic swimmer, Florent Manaudou became the first Olympic torch carrier to carry the Olympic flame from Marseille to mainland France in the lead up to the Summer Games in Paris.

Paris 2024 Olympics Organizing Committee President Tony Estanguet, a former Olympic canoeing star with gold medals from the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Games, said the return of the Olympic Games to France was cause for “fantastic celebration," observing, "As a former athlete, I know how important the start of a competition is. That is why we chose Marseille, because it’s definitely one of the cities most in love with sports.” 

The ceremony, a prelude to the official opening ceremony on July 26, 2024 of the Paris Summer Olympic Games, was meant to test measures on ground in terms of crowd control and security.

Safety of visitors and residents has been a top priority for authorities in Marseille, France’s second largest city with nearly a million inhabitants. About 8,000 police officers were deployed around in the harbour where 50,000 people gathered in the afternoon, according to City Hall officials.

As analysts argued over "Brand's" presence and the need to make an impact at the world stage, at such times as this, despite the global economic meltdown, they were however unanimous in the belief that brand marketing was another kind of sport which would be pursued aggressively through advertising, as an unregistered sport at the Olympic games where competitors struggle for worldwide attention and recognition. They mentioned a soft drink company which was already making an inroad.

In hindsight it must be mentioned that France put up concerted efforts to exterminate bedbugs on October 6, 2023, which had overtaken public space, a sore welcome to expected tourists at the Summer Olympics Games.

The country’s transport minister, Clement Beaune, met with transportation companies to draw up a plan for monitoring and disinfecting — and to try to ease what some called a national psychosis inflamed by the media.

The Olympic cauldron will be lit after the game's opening ceremony scheduled to take place on the River Seine on July 26, 2024.

The site for lighting up the cauldron is still subject to debate. People speculate that the cauldron could be lit in iconic spots as the Eiffel Tower or  the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre Museum, which are tourist spots.

The Summer Olympic games will run from July 26 to August 11, 2024.