The Team Relays

SPORT AT THE HEART OF THE PARIS 2024 TORCH RELAY

Each Organising Committee endeavours to leave their own unique mark on the torch relay. The events were resolutely sporting and collective! The Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays, sponsored by Coca-Cola, the Banques Populaires and the Caisses d’Epargne, were punctuated by team sporting relays organised on an unprecedented scale.

These team relays were a perfect illustration of Paris 2024’s vision to put sport at the heart of the Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays and to highlight those who make and live sport daily. For the first time in the history of the Games, the team relays involved the sports movement to represent the sports of the Games and thanking everyone who is involved in sport throughout France. On each day, one or two team relays were held.

OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY: TEAM RELAYS

Federation members at the heart

• For the Olympic Torch Relay, the 34 Olympic and Paralympic federations whose sports were on the programme of the Olympic Summer Games, as well as the Tahitian Surfing Federation, organised a total of 69 team relays with members from their disciplines.
• Each team relay was a chance to display each federation's sport by adding a touch of the unusual or spectacular or raising awareness of Para sport.

Unique team relays

Like the 24 skateboarders who will take to the streets of Bordeaux and Blois, the team relays will surprise the public. The Sisteron rock will become the new playground for the Climbing Federation, the Château de Compiègne park the target for archers from the Archery Federation, and the towns of Troyes and Bagnolet open-air dance floors. The fencing team relay on the Lascaux IV site and the show put on by the golfers at Guyancourt also promise to be exciting.

Spectacular team relays

The team relays will take place in exceptional locations, such as Mont-Saint-Michel for cycling. Omaha Beach will provide a spectacular backdrop for the equestrian team relay, while Les Sables-d’Olonne and Gruissan will be the setting for the sailing team relay. The surfing team relays look set to be grandiose, with a first team relay in Biarritz on the Basque coast, a second at La Torche in Finistère, and a third organised by the Tahitian Surfing Federation on Teahupo’o beach.

Team relays putting the spotlight on Paralympic sport

In line with the vision of Paris 2024, the team relays will be an opportunity to promote the Paralympic disciplines during the Olympic Torch Relay. Two Para sport relays will be organised in the Var department, in Saint-Raphaël, and in the Morbihan in Lorient. Two other adaptive sport relays are also planned in Roanne and Châlons-en-Champagne. Each of the federations is also keen to represent Para sport in their various team relays. The French Hockey Federation will set up two Para hockey pitches in the heart of Bordeaux and Amiens, and the French Badminton Federation will devise a Para sport scenario.

PARALYMPIC TORCH RELAY: TEAM RELAYS

Para sport identity at the heart of the Paralympic Torch Relay

For the Paralympic Torch Relay, six team relays, on themes linked to the Paralympic Movement, will be organised with the support of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee

• A “Paralympic Movement Volunteers” relay made up of iconic volunteers from the Paralympic federations.
• A “Young Para Athletes” relay highlighting the future of the French Paralympic team.
• One “Paralympian” relays to pay tribute to their sporting achievements.
• An “Innovative Actions” relay to highlight the people and organisations that are proposing and developing innovative actions, such as the programmes undertaken or supported by the CPSF (Impact 2024).
• An “Associations and Caregivers” relay: Disability can turn the life of an individual and their entire family upside down. This relay will be made up of people who give their lives for those around them who have disabilities and people who work daily in associations to help develop caregivers' rights.
• An "ESMS&Clubs" relay: to highlight the CPSF's programme, launched in 2020, which links sports clubs and medico-social establishments that do not have regular contact with each other, in order to promote initiatives to discover para-sporting activities and support their sustainability.

Paris 2024 wanted to make these team relays an unmissable event for all sports fans. Each team relay has been designed as a show for everyone. The public is invited to enjoy a moment of conviviality, emotion, and sport! These team relays embody the values of sharing and team spirit that are so dear to the world of sport and the Games.