Torch and sandals: What to know about the flame-lighting ceremony in Greece for the Paris Olympics

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — A priestess prays to a dead sun god in front of a fallen Greek temple. If the sky is clear, a flame spurts that will burn in Paris throughout the world’s top sporting event. Speeches ensue.

On Tuesday, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony.

It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896.

Here’s a look at the workings and meaning of the elaborate ceremony held among the ruins of Ancient Olympia ahead of each modern Olympiad.

Couldn't the Academy Awards just be announced in a conference call?

The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It's meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled.

Once it's been carried by any means imaginable to the host city — it's been beamed down by satellite, lugged up Mount Everest and towed underwater — the flame kindles a cauldron that burns in the host Olympic stadium until the end of the games. Then it's used for the Paralympics.

An actor playing an ancient Greek priestess holds a silver torch containing highly combustible materials over a concave mirror. The sun's rays bounce off every inch of the burnished metal half-globe and come together at one extremely hot point, which ignites the torch.

This happens inside the archaeological site at Olympia, before the ancient temple of Hera — wife of Zeus, king of the Greek gods, whose own ruined temple lies close by.

The flame is eventually used to light the first runner's torch — champagne-colored this year for France — and a long relay through Greece leads to the April 26 handover at the Panathenaic stadium in Athens.

Flames and sandals make for an impressive spectacle, and while the priestess' largely tongue-in-cheek prayer to Apollo might not be answered, the parabolic mirror works well.

The idea was the result of Greek-German cooperation ahead of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, which were heavy on fanfare — and swastikas. It was based on a mechanism mentioned by ancient writers in a non-Olympic context, and served the desire to blend the games of antiquity with the modern revival.

The 1936 innovations included a torch relay all the way to Berlin, and have been followed, with modifications, ever since. An initial idea to do the relay flame in hollow plant stalks — a nod to the Greek myth of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods — was ditched as impractical.

No. But then modern athletes don't compete naked, or, when victorious, receive olive wreaths and the right to a marble statue in their name — and, for three-times winners, in their actual likeness.

Also, there's no brief cessation of warfare to allow the modern games to go ahead, women not only attend but compete as well, and rich sponsors — or heads of state — don't reap the glory for their chariot teams' wins.

According to ancient Greek tradition, the games of antiquity, held every four years in honor of Zeus, started in 776 B.C. They were the most important of the major Greek sporting festivals, where events included running, wrestling and horse racing. Up to 40,000 spectators could attend.

Like in most preindustrial societies, life in ancient Greece was deeply physical and a well-exercised body was seen as the mark of a gentleman.

The games continued, with minor blips, until the new Christian authorities in Greece banned them as part of the reprehensible pagan past, in A.D. 393.

Rain. Heavy cloud cover. Then the mirror doesn't work. But ceremony organizers in Olympia hold several rehearsals in the days leading up to the official lighting, which provide a backup flame should the big day prove sunless. That's what ended up happening on Tuesday, when the skies were cloudy.

Potential protests are a worse headache. Twice this century — during the lighting ceremonies for the Beijing Summer and Winter Games — human-rights activists disrupted the ceremony inside the fenced and heavily guarded archaeological site. Even after the embarrassment of the first incident in 2008, Greek police were unable to anticipate and prevent the second, 14 years later. There was no incident Tuesday.

The flame-lighting, with its broad TV coverage — although the official stream shies from showing any form of protest — is a magnet for activists who want to grab headlines. And even if ancient Olympia can, in theory at least, be efficiently guarded, the route of the torch relay through Greece is too long to be protest-proof.

The 2008 incidents at Olympia and abroad led to the scrapping of torch relays outside Greece and the host country.

Further along the road, while the torches are designed to stay lit, there have been hitches in the past. During the relay for the 2014 Sochi Games, wind blew out the torch, which was sneakily rekindled with a lighter. The same quick fix was used at Montreal in 1976, when rain extinguished the Olympic cauldron.

Follow AP’s coverage of Paris Olympics preparations at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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FILE - The Olympic flame is carried by a torch bearer from the Olympiastadion in Berlin en route to the stadium in Gruenau, Germany for the opening of the Olympic Rowing and Canoeing events on the Regatta course, Aug. 1, 1936. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Villagers in Strefi, Greece, cheer a runner carrying the Olympic flame in the relay from Olympia to Pyrgos, July 20, 1948. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - An arrow carrying the Olympic flame leaves the bow of Antonio Rebollo to light the Olympic Torch and open the XXV Olympiad in Barcelona, July 25, 1992. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Dominique Mollard, File)

FILE - Wendy Craig Duncan carries the olympic flame underwater at Agincourt reef, Queensland, Australia June 27, 2000. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Steve Nutt, File)

FILE - American swimmer Janet Evans, right, looks on as Muhammad Ali lights the Olympic flame during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony in Atlanta, July 19, 1996. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

FILE - Nine times Olympic gold medal winner Carl Lewis of the United States poses for the photographers in front of the Olympic flame in front of the columns of the ancient Parthenon temple at the Acropolis hill, Aug. 12, 2004. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

FILE -The first torch bearer, Greek gymnast Eleftherios Petrounias runs with the torch after the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia, Greece, on April 21, 2016. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

FILE - Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, center, playing the role of the High Priestess, lights the torch of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, held by Greek shooting Olympic champion Anna Korakaki, left, the first torchbearer, during the flame lighting ceremony at the closed Ancient Olympia site, birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southern Greece, March 12, 2020. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis, File)

FILE - Police officers run to detain protesters displaying a Tibetan flag and a banner disrupting the lighting of the Olympic flame at Ancient Olympia site, birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southwestern Greece, Oct. 18, 2021. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

FILE - Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, playing the role of the High Priestess, prays to the ancient God Apollo during the lighting of the Olympic flame at Ancient Olympia site, birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southwestern Greece, Oct. 18, 2021. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

FILE - An official places a cover over the cauldron to protect it from rain before the lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia, southwestern Greece, Oct. 24, 2017. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

FILE - A Greek actress dressed as an ancient priestess, right, holds the Olympic flame during a dress rehearsal for Monday's flame-lighting ceremony, in this stadium of Ancient Olympia, March 23, 2008, where the ancient Olympics were born in 776 B.C. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

FILE - Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou, playing the role of a high priestess, holds up the Olympic flame lit with a concave mirror near the Temple of Hera in Ancient Olympia, March 24, 2008 where the Olympics were born in 776 B.C. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

FILE - Actress Katerina Lehou, right, as high priestess, lights the torch during the lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia, southwestern Greece, Oct. 24, 2017. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

FILE - Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, playing the role of the High Priestess, lights the torch during the lighting of the Olympic flame at Ancient Olympia site, birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southwestern Greece Oct. 18, 2021. On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics will be lit and be carried through Greece for more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Growing up, Teresa Vicente spent long days in Spain's Mar Menor swimming in transparent waters, cupping seahorses in her hands and partying under the moonlit sky. Out there, she recalled, time stood still.

But over the decades, chronic contamination from mining, development and agricultural runoff turned the once crystal-clear waters of Europe's largest saltwater lagoon into a graveyard. A mass fish die-off in 2019 prompted the professor of philosophy of law at the University of Murcia to take action.

Over the next several years, Vicente, now 61, led a grassroots campaign to save the region's ecological jewel from collapse. Her efforts helped lead to a new law passed in 2022, giving the lagoon the legal right to conservation, protection and damage remediation.

Vicente is one of this year's seven winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel," which honors grassroots activists and leaders from across the globe for achievements in protecting the natural world. The recipients were selected from about 100 nominees.

“(This prize) signifies an international recognition that we are facing a new stage in humanity," said Vicente in Spanish. It's a stage where “human beings understand they are part of nature. And this recognition means that it is not a local or national conquest, but rather a European and international one."

“They call Mar Menor the lagoon of magic," she added, "and all of us on this journey have seen a lot of magic.”

The other winners are:

— Marcel Gomes, executive secretary for the media nonprofit Repórter Brasil, who organized a campaign that alleged connections between beef from the world's largest meatpacking corporation, JBS, and illegal deforestation in Brazil and helped pressure retailers around the world to stop selling the meat.

— Indigenous activist Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, who helped stop development of a coal mine in Australia's Queensland state that would have devasted nearly 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) of a nature preserve, spewed nearly 1.6 billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over its lifetime, and endangered the rights and culture of Indigenous peoples.

— Alok Shukla, who led a community movement that saved nearly half a million acres (200,000 hectares) of forests from 21 proposed coal mines in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India.

— Andrea Vidaurre, who helped convince the state of California's air quality agency to establish two transportation regulations that limit emissions from trains and trucks. The rules include the nation's first emissions limit for trains.

— Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu, Indigenous activists who prevented seismic testing for coal and gas in a coastal area off South Africa's Eastern Cape.

Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, called the winners “an incredible group of individuals laboring, sometimes in obscurity, against overwhelming odds to prevail against governments, against industry."

Vicente was born and raised in Spain's southeastern city of Murcia, home to the Mar Menor. When she learned about the 2019 fish die-off, she was at the University of Reading in England studying how other countries had successfully bestowed legal rights upon natural resources to protect them.

To save the lagoon, Vicente in 2020 helped write the first draft of a bill granting legal protection to the Mar Menor and submitted it to Spain's Parliament, which allows citizens to propose laws directly. But the process required her to gather 500,000 signatures during COVID-19 lockdowns.

By November 2021, with help from thousands of volunteers across Spain, Vicente had amassed nearly 640,000 signatures — and the law was passed in 2022.

She never doubted she would succeed. "People had understood that they were part of that ecosystem and were excited about the idea of ​​being able to defend their rights," she said. "When people forget their political differences, their religious differences or their economic differences, and give themselves over to a new idea of ​​justice, that is a sure success.”

The Goldman Environmental Prize was founded in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda H. Goldman to recognize common people working in their communities to protect and improve their environment.

AP video journalist Haven Daley contributed to this report from San Francisco.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Teresa Vicente poses for a photo on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in San Francisco. Vicente, a professor who helped save Europe's largest saltwater lagoon, is one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel" and announced on Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teresa Vicente poses for a photo on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in San Francisco. Vicente, a professor who helped save Europe's largest saltwater lagoon, is one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel" and announced on Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Teresa Vicente poses for a photo on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in San Francisco. Vicente, a professor who helped save Europe's largest saltwater lagoon, is one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel" and announced on Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

FILE - A man collects dead fish that have appeared by the shore of the Isle of Ciervo off La Manga, part of the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia, Spain, Aug. 19, 2021. Teresa Vicente, a professor who helped save the lagoon, is one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel" and announced on Monday, April 29. (Edu Botella/Europa Press via AP, File)

Teresa Vicente poses for a photo on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in San Francisco. Vicente, a professor who helped save Europe's largest saltwater lagoon, is one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel" and announced on Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)