The design of the torch that 11,000 people will carry during the torch relay was presented at the headquarters of the Organizing Committee of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games by its president Tony Estanguet, together with its designer, Mathieu Lehanneur, and its associate producer Arcelor Mittal.
The Olympic torch relay will be the first and will start in France on May 8, 2024. In a year’s time, after traveling thousands of kilometers, the torch will light the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony.
Then, after two weeks of competition, it will begin a new journey in the Paralympic torch relay, lighting the cauldron again on August 28, 2024.
Although the two relays will be different, the torch design is exactly the same, as Estanguet explained: “Following our logic of building bridges between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, both share the same emblem and the same mascot. In Paris 2024, we will also have the same design for the torch.
“This object embodies all editions of the games. When we look back at the history, each torch is more beautiful than the previous one and unique. All countries try to show their creativity and we can see it. It is an aesthetic object that tells something,” he added.
A TORCH REFLECTING THE PARIS 2024 GAMES
The torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is distinguished above all by its champagne color, which is unique and luminous. To reflect the spirit of the upcoming Games, Mathieu Lehanneur was inspired by the three symbols of Paris 2024: equality, water and conciliation.
“Equality is symbolized through perfect symmetry. Water through the effects of waves, relief and vibration, while conciliation with soft curves,” he noted.
He also described the effect of lightness he wanted the torch to reflect: “We worked as sculptors, we didn’t want to add things. From the initial idea we wanted to go back to the essence of what we were looking for and use as little material as possible and achieve maximum lightness.”
“Designing the torch is a creative’s dream,” said Mathieu Lehanneur, winner of the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris, whose works are part of the world’s most important public and private collections.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime dream, like a miraculous encounter with history. As ritual as it is magical, the torch is a mythical object. It is a symbol of cohesion and sharing; it is the real key to the Games. For Paris 2024, and for the first time in history, it plays in perfect symmetry to better speak to us about equality,” he stressed.
TORCH UNITES THE GAMES CELEBRATIONS
After being lit by the sun’s rays in Olympia (Greece), according to ancestral tradition, the Olympic flame will reach France after crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
On May 8, 2024, the celebrations will begin in Marseille, where the relay will start its four-month journey through different regions of France until 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 Paralympianism, it will be lit again in Stoke Mandeville, the symbolic home of the Paralympic Games, to shine in a new relay with a thousand torchbearers.
When the Paralympic torch relay comes to an end, a new flame will light the cauldron during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on August 28, 2024.
This will be followed by two weeks of intense competition that will close with the Closing Ceremony on September 8, 2024.
“The torch is a more complex, technical and technological object than I first imagined. We tried 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 with something that is not alive? The idea for this object, whether it was to be carried by the torchbearers or to be in a museum, was to embody and be an absolute symbol of Paris 2024 and whatever happens at these Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Lehanneur concluded.
FACTS ABOUT THE PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC TORCH
Size: 70 cm.
Minimum diameter: 3.5 cm.
Maximum diameter: 10 cm.
Weight: 1.5 kg.
Color: champagne.
Material: Arcelor Mittal XCarb® steel from recycled and renewable sources.
Fuel: biopropane.
Number of torches produced: 2 thousand.
