The ‘High Priestess’, played by Hellenic actress Mary Mina, lights the torch with the Olympic flame. The illumination took place in the archaeological museum, in front of the impressive marble statue of the Nike of Peony, which dates from around 420 BC. Due to the rain in recent days, today’s fire could not be obtained using a parabolic mirror, which concentrates sunlight, which is required in traditional rituals. The flame was lit during a ceremonial rehearsal last Monday, on a sunny day, and saved for today.
TORCH STORAGE CEREMONY AT THE OLYMPIA
The ‘archpriest’ presented his flame to the first torch bearer, rower Petros Gaidatzis, bronze medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, who lit the Milan-Cortina torch. Christened “Essenziale” for its minimalist design, the torch is made from an alloy of recycled aluminum and brass and weighs 1060 grams, and emphasizes the “purity” of the fire and its high symbolic value. The athlete was also given an olive branch, a symbol of peace and brotherhood between nations.
On the grounds of the museum, Italian champion Stefania Belmondo joined Gaidatzis and together they continued the Olympic torch relay. This former cross-country skier from Cuneo is one of the most successful Italian athletes in Olympic history, with ten Olympic medals won in his career, among which two gold medals won, exactly ten years apart from each other, at Albertville 1992 and Salt Lake City 2002 stand out.
In 2006 he was the final torchbearer to light the brazier at Turin’s Olympic Stadium. Belmondo, together with Gaidatzis, will reach the marble stele indicating the spot where the heart of the Paris baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, was buried in a bronze urn.
That’s when it was Armin Zoeggeler’s turn to take over the torch. Nicknamed “the cannibal”, now the coach of the national luge team, he is the first athlete in history to win six individual medals in the same discipline in six consecutive editions of the Winter Olympics, from 1994 to 2014, with gold medals in Turin and Vancouver. Zoeggeler will climb the ladder to the Olympic Academy.
Reproduction protected by law © Copyright ANSA
