The Paris 2024 Games Torch

Lit according to ancient tradition by the rays of the sun in Olympia, Greece, the Olympic Flame will arrive in France after crossing the Mediterranean Sea.  In Marseille, on 8 May 2024, the Flame from the Paris 2024 Torch will open the celebrations and mark the start of an uninterrupted four-month celebration throughout the land, from the Olympic Torch Relay to the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony.   

At the end of the Olympic Torch Relay, on 26 July 2024, the celebrations will culminate in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. After an unforgettable parade of athletes along the Seine, spectators and television viewers will see the final torchbearer igniting the cauldron with the Torch and its sacred fire to officially open the Olympic Games.   

After two weeks of athletic achievements and celebrations, the Olympic Flame will be extinguished, but the Torch will endure.   

A unifier of Olympism and Paralympism, the Torch will be lit once again in Stoke Mandeville, a place symbolic of the Paralympic Games, to shine in a new Relay, carried by 1,000 different torchbearers. The celebrations will start again and a new Flame from the Torch will ignite a new cauldron, the Paralympic Games cauldron, at the Opening Ceremony on 28 August 2024. After this second culminating moment, the celebrations of the Games will continue for two more weeks of intense competition until the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony on 8 September 2024.   

Once the Paralympic Flame has been extinguished, the Torch will remain the symbolic and iconic object of the Games celebrations, something that will forever be associated with Paris 2024.

An iconic object of the Games, the Torch embodies the identity of each edition through its shape, colour and inspirations. It is an art piece in its own right that had to reflect the image of the Paris 2024 Games. To create it, Paris 2024 chose to work with French designer Mathieu Lehanneur. 

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Torch is distinguished first and foremost by its colour, which is both unique and radiant. To reflect the forthcoming Games, Mathieu Lehanneur also drew inspiration from three themes of Paris 2024: Equality, Water and Peacefulness.

Equality

From the bid through to the organising of the Games today, equality is a driving force behind the Paris 2024 project. Equality means putting the same ambition into organising the Paralympic Games as the Olympic Games. Following on from the emblem and the mascots, the Olympic and Paralympic Games will share the same Torch design. 

Equality in the Paris 2024 project is also reflected in the strong commitment to parity in the Olympic Games: for the first time in the history of the Games, as many women as men will take part in the competitions.

To reflect this ambition, the design of the Torch is perfectly symmetrical, both horizontally and vertically, to symbolise this equality. 

Water

Water will occupy a special place in the Paris 2024 Games. Arriving via the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Belem, the Torch will take the Olympic Flame across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans in the “Relais des Océans”, to reach 5 overseas territories: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, French Polynesia and Réunion.  

Water is also at the heart of Paris as no one can imagine the capital without the Seine and Paris 2024 could not organise the Games without the river playing a pivotal role. As the stage for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, the natural venue for Olympic and Paralympic events and acting as the link between Paris and the Seine-Saint-Denis département, the Seine will be the backbone of the forthcoming Games.

Water has inspired the wave, 3D and vibration effects on the Torch, which reproduce the ripples and movements of water, in addition to the reflections of light on its surface. 

Peacefulness

The Olympic and Paralympic Games have always been a symbol of peace. Since ancient Greece, the Olympic Flame has carried a message of unity to people and nations. The legacy of a thousand-year-old tradition, it symbolises the ideal of the Olympic truce. 

Reflecting this desire for peace, the Torch, with its curves and rounded lines, is suffused with gentleness. Pure in form, almost elemental, the design of the Torch conveys generosity and solidarity.

A total of 2,000 torches will be produced by world steel leader ArcelorMittal, Official Partner of the Games, to create these unforgettable objects of the Paris 2024 Games.

The Olympic and Paralympic torches in detail

The Paris 2024 Torch is manufactured by ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel company and a Paris 2024 Official Partner. In total, 2,000 torches will be produced by ArcelorMittal, five times fewer than for previous editions of the Games. 

Through to its know-how and power of innovation, ArcelorMittal is also contributing to reducing the carbon footprint of the Torch manufacture. To manufacture the Torch for the Paris 2024 Games, ArcelorMittal is mobilising its Global R&D department and three of its French sites to represent the expertise of its workforce. These sites have been carefully selected for their ability to produce steel with a reduced carbon footprint that meets the design requirements of the torch.