With just about a year to go, the organising committee of Paris 2024 has revealed the design of Olympic Torch for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The organising committee of the Paris Olympic Games 2024 has revealed the design of the Olympic Torch, designed by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur. According to a press statement by Paris 2024, almost a year to go before Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the organising committee has presented the Torch which will carry the Olympic and Paralympic Flames, bringing the Games back to France 100 years after the last Olympic Summer Games were held in Paris.

The statement adds that in Marseille, on May 8, 2024, the flame from the Paris 2024 Torch will open the Games with the Olympic Torch Relay until the Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony.

The statement adds that the Torch embodies the identity of each edition through its shape, colour and inspirations. It is an art piece in its own right. Because the Flame will be reaching French people throughout the country and across the seas and the oceans, the Torch had to reflect the image of the Paris 2024 Games, adds the statement.

The statement goes on to say that born in 1974, Mathieu Lehanneur is one of the few designers of his generation to be able to embrace so many creative spheres. A prominent figure in French design, his approach is radically multidisciplinary : from objects to architecture, art to products and from one-off pieces to cutting-edge technologies. His pieces draw on nature, science, history and technique, it says.

The statement adds that the Paris 2024 Torch is manufactured by ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel company and a Paris 2024 Official Partner. 2,000 torches will be produced by ArcelorMittal, five times fewer than for previous editions of the Games, in order to reduce the impact of production. Through to its know-how and power of innovation, ArcelorMittal is also contributing to reducing the carbon footprint of the Torch manufacture.

‘‘Designing the Torch for the Games is a designer’s dream, one that comes around once in a lifetime, like an extraordinary encounter with history. Ritualistic and magical in equal measure, the Torch is a mythical object. A symbol of cohesion and sharing, it really does play a key role in the Games,’’ says Lehanneur.

‘‘It will travel thousands of kilometres, passed from person to person, on land and sea. For Paris 2024, and for the first time in its history, it plays on perfect symmetry, speaking to us more clearly about equality. I wanted it to be extremely pure, iconic, almost elemental. As simple as a hyphen and as fluid as a flame,’’ he adds.

Measuring 75 cm in length and 10 cm wide at its widest point, the torch weighs about 1.5 kg each.

“It is a privilege and a great responsibility for ArcelorMittal to manufacture the Torches, such an iconic symbol of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, for Paris 2024. ArcelorMittal’s teams are mobilising all their expertise to produce high-quality steel with a reduced carbon footprint, enabling us to create a Torch as beautiful as Mathieu Lehanneur imagined it, and as sustainable as we want it to be. I am delighted with this superb achievement and congratulate all the ArcelorMittal teams working on this fantastic project,’’ says Aditya Mittal, CEO, Arcelor Mittal.