the Olympic underwater torch on display at the National Sports Museum in Nice

The “historic” object was presented this Tuesday at the National Sports Museum in Nice. To be highlighted, a space dedicated to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be inaugurated next year.

The image went around the world. On June 18, Alice Modolo, vice-world champion in freediving, went down to the seabed of Villefranche-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes) to look for the underwater torch on the occasion of the Olympic torch relay in the department.

Five months later, the torch has now been on display at the National Sports Museum in Nice since November 5.

“A privilege and an honor”

Present for the inauguration of the exhibition, Alice Modolo, licensed at Chango Diving Nice, spoke of her pride. “Being at the museum, coming here, the circle is complete and for me, it is a privilege and an immense honor,” she smiles at the microphone of BFM Nice Côte d’Azur.

In addition to the underwater torch, the wetsuit the athlete wore last June will also be on display.

“I didn’t think I would experience that one day. It was a suspended moment to embody the face of freediving,” says the athlete, who evokes “a certain pride also for women’s sport.”

To ensure that both pieces are highlighted, a space dedicated to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be inaugurated at the Museum next year.

“All visitors come to experience a little piece of history at the museum. It’s true that these objects serve as witnesses to the history of sport and to history more broadly,” greets Marie Grasse, general director and curator in head of the museum.

A unique torch

The feat carried out on June 18 was also somewhat unprecedented. If an underwater Olympic torch had already been used in Sochi and Sydney, the local maralpine design denotes.

“There are two parts: a custom-made envelope with a microprocessor which adjusted the frequency to give the feeling of a flame. And underneath, a small pipe which made it possible to make bubbles and give the impression that there was had a flame underwater”, he explains Joseph Strazzanti, designer of this underwater torch, present in Nice on Tuesday.

A very different construction from the torches previously used, which used magnesium and were dangerous to handle underwater.