Issued on: 26/07/2024 – 17:51

3 minutes

“The relay is over,” said an official as he prepared to drive away from the final stop on the Canal Saint Martin in a car bearing the slogan “flame relay.”

“Next stop: the boiler.”

The heavily guarded flame was making its way to the city centre, ready for the final leg of its long journey, ending with the reveal of which star would walk the final leg and light the cauldron to officially begin the Games.

The last day of the relay was called the “Epilogue”.

The torch had traveled to some of the more posh addresses in Paris on July 14, the French National Day, and on July 15, before reaching the suburbs.

On Friday, the ship began its final voyage in Saint-Denis, home to the main Olympic Stadium and Athletes’ Village, before sailing along the still-industrial Canal Saint-Denis and under the ring road into the traditionally working-class 19th arrondissement, where it braved the occasional drizzle.

In the athletes’ village, Bach and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took turns as torchbearers.

“Now the real work begins,” Bach told a group of athletes. “We’re all in the sport. We know that what’s happened so far is just training. You can feel the vibe between the athletes and the organizers.”

Yiech Pur Biel, who ran the 800 metres for the refugee team in Rio in 2016 and is a member of the IOC committee representing South Sudan, found the experience moving.

“Do you want me to cry or what?” he asked. “It’s an honor to carry this torch for the first time.”

“I represent millions of refugees who are not here today, and I also represent different athletes, different diversities, and different communities. That’s what makes it so emotional to be here.”

Long live the Olympic Games

In the stadium, Snoop Dogg, dressed in a gold jacket and before putting on his white relay suit, tried to practice his French.

“Vive les Jeux Olympiques,” said the rapper, a special reporter at the Games for the American network NBC.

Holding the torch aloft, he danced, walked, ran and waved as the crowd chanted “Snoop!”

“Imagine if he goes crazy, grabs the flame and lights his joint with it!” said one of the spectators, Toufik.

From the stadium, the flame crossed the Aubervilliers Canal for a series of boat trips past concrete factories and apartment blocks to Paris, accompanied by crowds of spectators, security guards, officials and even canoeists in costume.

Each torch held enough fuel for six minutes, but progress was periodically interrupted by choreographed stops as one torch lit another and cameras snapped and buzzed.

“It doesn’t happen often. It’s exceptional,” Nathalie, who didn’t want to give her last name, said from Aubervilliers as she stood on a bridge waiting for the flame.

The flame passed beneath the periphery and into Paris on a diesel-spewing canal boat, the torch held aloft by its white-clad bearer, to be greeted by a crowd leaning over the railing of the next bridge.

The relay raced through the Parc de la Villette, now transformed into the Parc des Nations, where the ‘clubhouses’ of a number of countries are located. France dominates the Grande Halle, but Brazil sits in a circus tent and Mongolia in yurts.

The relay then took to the water and sailed along the Canal de l’Ourcq, as the growing crowd cheered and sang football songs, towards the Canal Saint-Martin and the final encounter with the symbolic witches’ cauldron.

© 2024 AFP