EU passes torch to Ukraine for Europe Day

“One, two, three… Europe!” » : in Marseille, 27 athletes each representing one of the countries of the European Union, dressed all in white, surround their Olympic torch relay captain, Ukrainian gymnast Mariia Vysochanska, to mark their solidarity with her battered country.

Facing the Mucem, the museum of European and Mediterranean civilizations, a little tense but smiling, the 21-year-old gymnast, star in her country and hope of a medal at the Paris Olympics (July 26 – August 11), lit her torch for a few hours after the start of the torch relay by Marseille football legend Basile Boli.

Then she passed it to her neighbor, Lithuanian rower Saulius Ritter, in the front row of a guard of honor formed by the 27 EU athletes, to the applause of dozens of spectators.

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“It’s a very great honor, a moment that you probably only experience once in your life”Saulius Ritter, a smiling giant of 2.02 m, told AFP. “Today is Europe Day. We agree that Ukraine is part of Europe, this is an important message to send”adds the Baltic rower, whose country is particularly worried about a possible extension of the war led by Russia in Ukraine.

The father of the gymnast on the Ukrainian front

“The majority of the population, the majority of athletes on this planet, want peace, there are just a handful of people who don’t want it. The Olympic Truce is not just words, let’s try”for his part estimated another torchbearer, the French Olympic pole vault champion Jean Galfione.

Surrounding the young woman, whose father fought on the front against the Russian invasion, the group of athletes, which also included the Polish Anita Wlodarczyk, three-time reigning Olympic champion in the hammer throw, or the ex-Belgian sprinter Kim Gevaert then trotted to the Mucem.

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This relay included eight former gold medalists, two former flag bearers and seven qualifiers for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. This relay “is a way of emphasizing our solidarity with Ukraine (…) at a time when they are undergoing a terrible war of aggression”underlined while welcoming them the French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudea-Castera.

“It’s enormous support, firstly from France, a way of emphasizing that we form a single European family, that it’s not just Europe PLUS one”greeted his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktoriia Riasna, alongside him.