A fire is obviously not eternal and that of the Olympic flame could be exposed to external elements.
You may remember it. In 2008, France was the laughing stock of the world ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. While the Olympic flame made a stopover in France before reaching China, the famous torch was almost extinguished on several occasions by pro-Tibet demonstrators. The overwhelmed police forces narrowly managed to prevent the multiple attempts. But faced with these excesses, a member of the Chinese delegation decided to extinguish the flame on his own initiative, in front of the headquarters of France Televisions. These incidents angered Beijing, which canceled the ceremony which was to take place in Paris. The torch was then transported and escorted by bus.
A few days earlier, Great Britain had suffered the same fate and had also narrowly escaped disaster. But four years later, ahead of the London Olympics this time, the Olympic flame will indeed go out for the first time, embarrassing the British organizers. There was no malicious act at the origin of this incident: the torch suffered a technical problem during one of the relays, while it was attached to the wheelchair of David Follett, Paralympic badminton athlete. “A defective burner” was to blame, explained a spokesperson for the organizing committee of the London Olympic Games.
Fortunately, the French and English do not have a monopoly on ridicule. In 1976, in Montreal, the flame did not resist violent storms. During the Winter Games in Sochi in Russia (2014), it was turned off on the first day in front of the Kremlin…
Breakdown, gust of wind or militant act: in 2024, for the Paris Olympics, the Minister of the Interior wishes in any case to avoid this type of disappointment at all costs. And the authorities take the risk of seeing the flame go out very seriously. In April 2023, the hashtag “no retirement, no Olympics” was launched on social networks against pension reform. The State may also fear terrorist attacks. Finally there are the weather conditions.
So to counter all these anomalies, there are several remedies. Security will be reinforced throughout the territory with a “security bubble” around the torch (drone, gendarmes, police, security agents, etc.). Designed to withstand extreme conditions, in particular with a design to attenuate the effects of wind or rain, the torch will be powered by gas. And in the event of a problem despite everything, safety lanterns, which also contain the sacred fire of Olympia, will always be at his side, specifies the Olympic website. So in concrete terms, France risks nothing because everything seems to be planned.
With other means of transport such as plane or boat, the flame will be sheltered in a safety lamp. But let’s be reassured: a priori there is no sanction from the IOC against a country if the flame goes out. A dog-eared image is probably more than enough.
