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

The French swimmer was appointed to collect the flame from the “Belem” and bring it back to the Old Port in Marseille on May 8.

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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 Belemthe sailboat that carried the flame across the Mediterranean from Greece.

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 his 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.

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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.