Age Old Ceremony

 The Olympic torch was lit at Ancient Olympic in Greece today. The torch will be carried by relay through Greece for 11 days and then  to Marseille on a French 3 masted barque.  The French relay will last for 68 days until it reaches Paris on July 8. There the torch will light the flame in the Paris stadium, opening the 33rd Olympic Games. 

In 2004, for the Athens Olympics, the torch was brought to Poros and the relay went around the island, being met by one of our Olympic rowers.    We will not be seeing it this year though we now have an Olympic silver medal winner.  And a few up and coming rowers who could quite possibly compete in the 2028 Olympics.

Greek journalists, news readers, are on strike today but it was covered by the BBC and then I found it on the national channel. The ceremony is a piece of well rehearsed greek theatre and at the end of the performance the High Priestess lights the sacred flame.   I watched the flame being lit but couldn't hear the commentary which was in reverently hushed tones.  I wouldn't have heard anyway as K was on the phone next to me talking reverently in loud tones about the price of a pig.

The first modern ceremony of the lighting of the Olympic flame took place in Ancient Olympia in 1936 before the Berlin Games.  The ceremony takes place in the ruins of the stadium where the  games first began in 776 BC.

Over the years the flame has been around the world, into space, travelled underwater and even scaled Mount Everest.

Lets hope the torch travels safely to France and into Paris.  

1. These are the 1st games where there will be equal numbers of male and female athletes

2. France has hosted the summer Olympics 3 times.  In 1900,1924 and now in 2024

3.  There will be 32 sports contested including breakdancing, surfing, skateboarding and sporting climbing, whatever that is.

4. Neither Russia nor Belarus will be competing in these games because of the invasion of Ukraine.