Paris organisers receive Olympic flame at Greek venue of first modern Games

Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, right, receives the Olympic flame from Spyros Capralos, head of Greece’s Olympic Committee, during the flame handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

The Paris Olympics flame has been formally handed to French organisers in the all-marble stadium where the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896.

Greek water polo player Ioannis Fountoulis, the last in a long line of torchbearers, used the flame to light a cauldron at the Panathenaic Stadium.