The torch design for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic torch relays features wave-like ripples in the middle to symbolize water being at the heart of the Games.
The torch, unveiled a day before the one-year-out date from the Olympic Opening Ceremony, will be used for the 102-day Olympic torch relay that begins April 16, bringing the Olympic Flame from Olympia, Greece, over the Mediterranean Sea, through France (and overseas French territories) and to Paris.
About 11,000 torchbearers will share 2,000 torchers to complete the Olympic and Paralympic torch relays to reduce the impact of production. That’s a change from past Games that had a torch for every torchbearer.
French designer Mathieu Lehanneur designed the torch, which is 2 feet, 3 inches and 3.3 pounds.
The ripple-like waves fit in with the theme of water: the Olympic torch relay will travel across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans to visit French overseas territories: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, French Polynesia and Réunion.
The Opening Ceremony will take place on the Seine River, which will also host open-water swimming and triathlon competition.
The torch is also symmetrical, an ode to the plan for the Paris Games to be the first Olympics to have the same number of men and women competing.
It will carry the Olympic Flame and then the Paralympic Flame across France 🇫🇷
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) July 25, 2023
It will light the cauldron that will mark the start of our Games ✨
It will share the values and spirit of #Paris2024
Discover the Torch of the Paris 2024 Games 🔥 pic.twitter.com/B4OZ4MweLv