More than just Games? Torch relay launches build-up to Paris 2024 Olympics
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Play - 43:30
Paris hosts the Olympic Games this summer, but it's in a city founded by the ancient Greeks that it all begins. The Olympic flame has arrived in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, the start of a long journey to the July 26 opening ceremony. What's it all about? After all, the torch relay hasn't always been part of the pageantry. Organisers insist it's not political, but also boast of the values they purvey.
What are those values? Does it resonate, for instance, when the leader of the last host nation China and the next host nation France call for an Olympic truce during the Games?
What does a global spectacle like this one mean post-pandemic and in the midst of so many conflicts and fractures across the planet? To what extent will Paris 2024 mirror the triumphs and challenges of our present day?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.
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