A grandiose arrival which buried fears, at least in the press? For daily sports The TeamA “Olympic breath” took away Marseille with the arrival of the Olympic flame, Wednesday May 8, after a twelve-day crossing of the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Belem. The last survivor of the French three-masted ship – launched in 1896, the year of the first modern Olympic Games (OG) –, surrounded by some thousand boats in the harbor, was “like a school of fish of which he had been the admiral”reports again The Team.
It must be said that the scenography was mastered. “A precise choreography, for a myriad of shells accompanied by a smiling weather forecast and [d’]an accomplice mistral who had felt the need to catch his breath” until his “theatrical entry into the Old Port at 7 p.m.”depicted Le Figaro. After the lighting of the torch, carried by swimmer Florent Manaudou, the first torchbearer in France, “a spectacular fireworks display and The Marseillaise »before the Patrouille de France “ [salue] the event ». A day that the newspaper The Parisian title : “Marseille celebrating. »
“Some were waiting for the local child”
Then the Olympic medalist arrives from Belemtransmits the fire lit in Olympia (Greece) to Nantenin Keïta, Paralympic champion in the 400 meters in Rio (2016), before “a little twist of theater, as we like them”welcomes Provencethe regional daily newspaper of the stage, which devotes fourteen pages to the event and describes the day as“historical”: “A barely hidden face and a broad smile. Jul, the rapper with 26 gold records and [aux] three certified diamond albums, applauded by the crowd. » From now on, the “surprise” so entertained by Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, has a name: that of the best-known musical figure from Marseille and who has the honor of setting the Olympic cauldron ablaze, in front of 230 000 spectators, https://twitter.com/BenoitPayan/status/1788281274165043216
Read the report | Article reserved for our subscribers The Olympic flame, the crowd and the rapper Jul: in Marseille, a day of popular fervor which “does good for morale”
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However, another name was circulating for this mysterious third torchbearer, in a mixture of rumors and fantasies. At midday, https://twitter.com/lequipe/status/1788168275609706724, ” according to [ses] information, [le troisième porteur] should be Zinédine Zidane… unless there is yet another change of program.” “Some were waiting for the local child, the kid from Castellane”relates Provencefor whom this Wednesday, May 8, 2024 “will be remembered” thanks to “a communion that does good”. The Marseille footballer “would have been nice, but I think [Jul] it’s even better, especially for young people! »ventures Caroline, 22, into the columns of West France.
But who cares who carries it as long as we have fire. In the front row, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, applauds with a smile, he who wants “his share of success” by going to Marseille, according to Release. “The president does not miss an opportunity to ride on the jubilation expressed during the ceremony welcoming the flamepoints out the daily. He grants an interview to France 2 and [à] TF1 right at the start of their 8 p.m. news. »
“Security barriers worthy of Fort Knox”
Behind the VIP area, the crowd enjoys the arrival of the flame and the lighting of the cauldron, despite the crowds. “We had to elbow our way, sometimes wait more than an hour to get through security barriers worthy of Fort Knox, and almost no one really found the perfect seat to watch the entire show”teaches us Provence.
Absolute security, because France “has been the target of repeated Islamist terrorist attacks over the past decade, and security was tight on Wednesday (…), writing The New York Timeswhich recalls that 6,000 police officers and gendarmes were mobilized. Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior and potential presidential candidate, described the level of security as “unprecedented”. »
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Olympic Games: an unprecedented security system and a “demonstration zone” for the arrival of the flame in Marseille
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The downside is precisely security. Before the concert, scheduled for 9 p.m., by Marseille rappers Soprano and Alonzo, who were to complete this Olympic day, crowd movements occurred. “Panicked mothers, some of them in tears, were trying to find air for their children, in a stifling atmosphere which could, in hindsight, have gone very wrong”describe The Team, who points “poorly controlled input-output management”.
Despite this hitch, the arrival of the sacred fire was widely covered – live treatment by television (6 million viewers on TF1 and France 2) and the press, including The world – and received favorably in France. If Benoît Payan saw his city as the “center of the world”, the international media, unsurprisingly, did not show the same interest in the event.
For the French-speaking Belgian daily The evening, However, ” the show [fut] dazzling in front of a won over crowd.” “The fervor is finally here”, enthuses the media. In Japan, heir to the last Summer Games, the Yomiuri shimbunthe largest Japanese circulation and among the largest in the world, says that“a popular local singer [Jul] received the torch and lit the torch, bringing the excitement to a fever pitch.” Closer to us, the British daily The Guardian did not devote an article to the event, just like BildGermany’s most widely distributed publication.
