The Olympic flame arrives this Friday in the English Channel!

It’s the D-Day ! Waited for months, the Olympic flamewill disembark this Friday May 31, 2024 in Cherbourg (Manche), at 8:20 a.m., crossing the Channel in several stages throughout the day, before lighting the fire – in the cauldron – at Mont-Saint-Michel around 7:15 p.m.

How many torchbearers are there?

80 individual torchbearers and 47 united within two collectives – 24 young people in SNU (Editor’s note: Universal national service) or in civic service at Sainte-Mère-Église (on foot) and 23 personalities from the world of cycling at Mont (by bike) – will have the honor of carrying the torch for approximately 200-250 m each. That is 127 links in the Manchoise chain.

This is for the official list revealed by the national organizing committee. But by looking more closely at the numbers (called “tags” in this list), we could see the arrival of a few additional torchbearers…

How were they chosen?

This is the question that comes up most often when reading the list of the lucky ones, particularly because the vast majority are unknown to the general public. The carriers can be members or managers of sporting, cultural, social, societal associations, etc.

And their files, completed and sent from 2023 by themselves or by loved ones (family, friends, colleagues, bosses, etc.), convinced the decision-makers (the Organizing Committee for the Paris-2024 Olympic Games, the departmental sports authorities, sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Banque Populaire – Caisse d’Épargne, Sanofi, Sephora, Visa, ArcelorMittal, CMA CGM, etc.) to select them after studying their background, experience, energy and Olympic values.

If they are not known, it is also and above all because some of them are not from La Manche. Thus, the first torchbearers from Cherbourg – Manuella Couthier and Sharon Guenard – work for the Carrefour Group, “premium partner of the JOP”, in Île-de-France.

So we have to wait until the 3rd^e torchbearer to see the first local in the spotlight: Valognese Noël Debrix is ​​praised for his commitment to Heart and Cancer. We will also find, for example, the Saint-Vaastais Daniel Simon, the Cherbourgeoise Martine Préel, Pauline Loup who won the 100 km race of the Barjo in the Hague, Léa Voisin of the Cherbourg roller-hockey club Les Vikings, the specialist Saint-Loise handball Clothilde Mahé, etc.

The famous soda brand told us at the start of the year: “We received 15,000 applications nationally in four months! You had to be over 15 years old, fill out a form and describe your motivation in a text. We have chosen those who demonstrate strong civic and sporting commitment, or people in remission, who fight with the help of sport in particular. Coca selected 300 people. »

Among them, at least five Manchois: Hélène Lair, from Sottevast, Miss Curvy Normandie 2022; Clothilde Mahé who “accompanies children every week in the discovery and practice of handball as a volunteer leader”; Estelle Guérin de Pontorson, reservist of the national gendarmerie, judokate and volunteer with the Red Cross; Marianne Deschamps Le Saux, from Condé-sur-Vire, volunteer in several associations; and finally Marion Cornu, from Donville-les-Bains, who works within a collective supporting people in very precarious circumstances.

You will have understood: the objective was not to have only national stars or local personalities run around 200 m. The flame belongs to everyone – 11,000 torchbearers between the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games – as long as the criteria are respected and the “sponsors” are supportive.

As our reader Thibaut Denain rightly sums it up: “All the people who are moaning about the names of the people who will carry the flame, have you found out? They may not be famous, as you say, but perhaps they do more for the sport than some stars, at their level. Why shouldn’t they have the right to experience this too? »

“Whether they are anonymous or well-known, they will live a unique experience in the world of sport and the Games, and all will have in common that they share one of the three energies that shape the identity of the Torch Relay: l “energy of sport, of the collective and of the territories”, comments Alain Thiébot, the president of the Departmental Olympic and Sports Committee (CDOS) of La Manche.

Who was elected by the Department and EPIC du Mont?

The first eleven names fell in mid-January, 135 days before the deadline, and logically these are iconic personalitiesManche sport. From all generations, they were chosen by the Department and the EPIC of Mont-Saint-Michel – who paid €180,000 to bring the flame this Friday – among our Hopes (Saint-Loise walker Maële Biré-Heslouis and Tourlaville discus thrower Audrey Couchot, substitute), our Olympic selected potentials for Paris-2024 (the Breville shooter Éric Delaunay in skeet and the Cherbourg rider Julien Épaillard in show jumping), a former contender for these same Olympics (the Saint-Loise weightlifter Clarisse Gomis, under the colors of Senegal), our former competitors at the Olympic Games (Octevillaise Alexandra Fouace in 2000 and 2004, Agon-Coutainville rower Roger Lebranchu in rowing in 1948, and of course Éric Delaunay in 2016 and 2021), our referees of football (the Avranchinese Pauline Mazier), our para-athletes (the Coutançais shot putter Andy Delaunay) to create a link with the Paralympic Games, our stars (the legendary cycling speaker Daniel Mangeas, representing Saint-Martin- de-Landelles with its 41 Tour de France on the microphone) and even… our firefighters (Farid Bouyagayzen, from Marigny).

Will there be any changes…or surprises?

The latter was a substitute, he became the starter because Andy Delaunay was dismissed by the organizing committee for non-sporting reasons. Another important change at the Saint-Lô Equestrian Center, in the position of first horseback runner: local rider Éric Levallois replaces Julien Épaillard, competing since Thursday in Ramatuelle/Saint-Tropez.

We also learned that Maxime Gohier, linchpin of the departmental organization and former international kayak polo player with an impressive track record, was also going to join the relay under the E51 label, and he should thus launch the Mont-Saint flame -Michel at 6:16 p.m. near La Caserne.

As explained above, this Paris-2024 COJO – definitely adept at secrecy – could concoct a few last minute surprises… Thus, studying the official list closely, the E14 label is missing, between the Caligny quay and the town hall of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. A place reserved, between 8:55 a.m. and 9:01 a.m., for an unknown torchbearer or a personality? Four other places (between 6:37 p.m. and 6:54 p.m., before and after Thomas Pesquet) are thus vacant – still in theory – after the footbridge, at the foot of the Merveille…

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