Olympics Briefing: The Paris Flame Is Not a Flame

Even that classic symbol has been redone with a French twist.

View in browser|nytimes.com July 29, 2024 Follow along during the day's action with live coverage from The Athletic. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times By Andrew Keh Reporting from Paris The Olympic flame isn't a flame. Well, it's sort of a flame. But it's not made of fire. Even if it looks a lot like fire. Wait. Let me backtrack. Every host city has a few basic tasks that force it to straddle the line between acknowledging the tradition of the Games while showing that it is with the times. Essentially it needs to play the hits, but still surprise and delight. That's how you end up, for example, with an opening ceremony drifting down the Seine featuring a nearly nude man covered in blue paint and glitter. And that's how you get an Olympic flame that's not a flame after all. A flame that is actually "a cloud of mist and beams of light," according to Paris 2024 organizers. That is the flame (or is it "flame"?) that rests in an enormous cauldron, the one that actually comprises 40 LED spotlights and 200 misting nozzles, the one tethered to what looks like a gigantic hot air balloon that will rise into the air every night of the Games. I visited that flame on Sunday in the Jardin des Tuileries, in central Paris, where it exerted a certain planetary gravity on its surroundings. Tourists gathered and held their cameras over their heads. Passing cyclists hopped off their rides to take photos. Police officers in uniform took turns snapping selfies with it. As many as 10,000 visitors a day can request free access to view the flame and its orb up close. At sundown each day, the whole contraption elevates into the sky. Rony Gabali and his 10-year-old son, Nelson, felt compelled to swing by on Sunday after seeing it on television. "It's beautiful," Nelson said, smiling and trying out some English, before adding in French: "It reminds me of a montgolfière." That's the goal. The setup was designed as a tribute to the Montgolfier brothers — Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne — who invented the first hot air balloon for manned flight in 1783. The modern homage was another example of how Paris is using the beauty of its city as a stage for the Games. Yet the object, alluring as it was, raised another question: What happened to the flame, the actual burning fire, that had been lit and transported from Greece and then ferried around France for weeks? And then, in one corner of the garden, I saw something curious: a little glass box set atop a white stand, like a museum display. "Lit in Olympia, from the sun's rays," a sign affixed to it read. Inside was a flame — a tiny, real flame. TODAY'S TOP STORY Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times Stalkers, Disease and Doubt: A Gymnast's Hard Road Back to the Games Sunisa Lee, the all-around women's champion at the Tokyo Olympics, overcame personal strife, family expectations and serious illness to get to Paris. By Juliet Macur MEDAL COUNT     GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL United States 3 6 3 12 France 3 3 2 8 Japan 4 2 1 7 Australia 4 2 0 6 South Korea 3 2 1 6 China 3 1 2 6 See all medal counts Source: International Olympic Committee Results as of July 28, 7:03 p.m. E.T. Welcome to Day 3 The marquee event of Monday's Olympic schedule might be a meeting of two men roughly my age but in somewhat better shape: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The U.S. women's basketball team, which hasn't lost an Olympic game since 1992 and apparently contained too much talent this summer to squeeze in a certain W.N.B.A. rookie, will open its Games against Japan. And then there are medals up for grabs in the team event for men's gymnastics, a sport that exists even if most people only know Simone Biles. The Olympics are available on NBC and Peacock in the United States. MORE OLYMPICS COVERAGE Why Some Olympic Swimmers Think About Math in the Pool In a sport where gold and silver can be separated by a fraction of a second, many of the world's top swimmers now scour data for even the smallest edge. By Jenny Vrentas The Olympics Has a Bad Guy: Anyone in an Argentina Jersey Grudges from the World Cup and rugby union have spilled over to the Games. But is this new sports feud even real? By Rory Smith and James Wagner An Olympics Scene Draws Scorn. Did It Really Parody 'The Last Supper'? Some church leaders and politicians have condemned the performance from the opening ceremony for mocking Christianity. Art historians are divided. By Yan Zhuang Some of our Olympics coverage — including these dispatches — will also be available in Spanish. 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