Paris 2024: Florent Manaudou will be the first torchbearer of the Olympic flame on French soil

Florent Manaudou will be the first torchbearer of the Olympic flame on French soil, in Marseille, on May 8, announced Tony Estanguet on Friday April 26, during the torch handover ceremony. The French swimmer will collect it aboard the Belem, the sailboat that carried the flame across the Mediterranean from Greece. Two other torchbearers will take over to transport it to the Old Port, then to ignite a cauldron in the Marseille city.

Florent Manadou, named among the four captains of the flame with his sister Laure Manaudou and Paralympic athletes Mona Francis and Dimitri Pavadé, had already expressed the wish to obtain this honor in a letter on October 10. The 50m freestyle gold medalist in London in 2012 said he wanted “represent the Marseille Olympic champion athletes“, he who trains at the Cercle des nageurs de Marseille.

Silver medalist in Rio and Tokyo, the French swimmer will therefore launch the first stage of the long journey of the flame in France. A journey across the entire territory, passing through “the Relais des Océans” in Overseas France, until its arrival on July 26 in Ile-de-France where it will be installed in the heart of the Tuileries garden.

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