The Torchbearers

After being lit in Olympia, Greece, the Olympic torch started its journey from Greece to France at sea on board the majestic three-masted ship Bélem, crossing the Mediterranean from Athens to Marseille.

The Olympic Torch Relay then set out across France, highlighting its various regions and communities from the mainland to overseas departments and territories, offering everyone the chance to see the Olympic flame.

The Paralympic torch was lit in its ancestral home of Stoke Mandeville, England, at the end of August, before crossing the Channel for a Paralympic Relay around France. The torch’s destination was Paris, where it lit the cauldron during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

THE FACES OF THE FORERUNNERS RELAY

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays are also be known as the “Forerunners Relays”: Forerunners who pave the way for the celebrations in 2024 and highlight the beauty of France’s natural and cultural heritage.

The Forerunners are all those who are committed to ensuring the success of the Paris 2024 Games Torch Relay, and all those who welcome it: Paris 2024 partners, communities, sporting movement stakeholders, public sector organisations, Club Paris 2024 members and members of the general public are mobilised along the whole route to celebrate the arrival of the Games.

The Olympic and Paralympic torches are able to make their way around France thanks to the Forerunners, who help make the longstanding dream of Paris 2024 a reality, 100 years after the Olympic Summer Games were last held in France. The torchbearers are the faces of the Forerunner Relays; with their energy, they ramp up the atmosphere in local communities, helping France get in the mood to celebrate the Games.

WHO ARE THE 11,000 TORCHBEARERS?

Previous relays have seen some iconic torchbearers, including Michel Platini (Albertville 1992), Antonio Rebollo (Barcelona 1992), Muhammad Ali (Atlanta 1996), Cathy Freeman (Sydney2000) and David Beckham (London 2012). But many less well-known people with extraordinary stories have also carried it with panache and distinction.

In 2024, 11,000 torchbearers had this privilege and share a positive message full of enthusiasm: “The Games have arrived in France!” The torchbearers were selected based on their commitment, dedication and how they embody at least one of the core tenets of Paris 2024.

The first tenet is of course that of sport and the Games: the energy of the athletes, volunteers and working professionals from various sports associations, and everyone who is part of the Games as volunteers, the employees of our various partners, and all the people who have been involved in this adventure since it began.

The second is that of the communities, symbolised by everyone who is running businesses, innovating, creating, and embodying French excellence across all sectors throughout France.

Lastly, the third is that of the collective, which were displayed through the selection of torchbearers who are taking action each day to build a more inclusive, more sustainable, and fairer society with a stronger focus on solidarity.

The torchbearers represented the outstanding diversity of our society: women and men, national and local public figures, as well as citizens selected from among the public, including people with disabilities. With France organising the Paralympic Summer Games for the first time in its history, Paris 2024 used the Relay as an opportunity to promote a more inclusive society. The same criteria for selecting torchbearers were applied for the Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays.

HOW WERE THEY SELECTED?

The entire Paris 2024 ecosystem was involved in selecting the torchbearers.

Thanks to their outstanding ability to mobilise their millions of employees and customers, the Games’ partner companies — including the two official sponsors of the Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays (Coca-Cola and Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne) — played a vital role in the selection of the torchbearers.

The communities; the sporting movement; the project’s stakeholders, including the French State, the City of Paris, Métropole du Grand Paris, the Seine-Saint-Denis Department, and the Île-de-France Region, as well as Club Paris 2024; the Terre de Jeux 2024 representatives and the schools awarded the Generation 2024 label contributed to this selection process. There were various options for selection for the Olympic Torch Relay: nomination by a peer, call for candidates, selection in a draw or by a jury, and direct appointments.

The Paralympic torchbearers were selected directly by Paris 2024 and its ecosystem. During its campaign to nominate the Olympic torchbearers, Paris 2024 gathered interest from candidates to carry the Paralympic flame.

The torchbearers were announced on 15 January 2024.

CLUB PARIS 2024 NOMINATION CAMPAIGN

Club Paris 2024 conducted its nomination campaign in June 2023. Each member could nominate someone they would like to see carry the Olympic torch.

At the end of this campaign, 5,000 candidates were chosen in a draw out of more than 20,000 complete nominations to be analysed by selection panels set up across France and in French overseas territories. The lucky people selected will receive an official email confirming their participation at the start of 2024.