The Olympic torch has arrived in France to kick off a 79-day relay race across the country and its territories before making its final stop in Paris ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, scheduled to begin on July 26. 

French 2012 Olympic men’s 50-meter freestyle swimming champion Florent Manaudou ushered the flame as it arrived in France on Wednesday aboard a historic three-masted ship, the Belem, days after leaving Greece carrying the flame on April 29.

The torch had been lit up in Ancient Olympia 11 days before the Belem embarked on its journey to France. It finally arrived in the country on Wednesday, and the Acrobatic Patrol branch of the French Air Force welcomed it by tracing the Olympic rings in the sky as Mr Manaudou walked the flame.

He walked the flame along a temporary jetty crafted to resemble track and field lanes in front of a crowd local authorities said was more than 255,000, the New York Times reported. 

The torch was eventually handed off to Nantenin Keïta, a French paralympic sprinter. The flame was then given to Jul, a popular Marseille rapper, who lit the Olympic cauldron as the crowd erupted with cheers. 

France’s President Emmanuel Macron was also present at the event. 

Speaking to France 2 television station, Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympic Committee, said, “We needed a powerful symbol, a strong symbol that somehow showed the radiant face of France. Marseille is a city of sport, passion, and festivities.”