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The Olympic Games are more than just athletes and sports. They thrive on tradition and produce images that go down in history. And the symbolism of the Olympics is an important part of their magic, with all kinds of shapes and colors intertwined with the achievements of athletes who compete at the highest level.
While the Opening Ceremony is a highly emblematic image of the Olympics, the torch, torchbearer, and the cauldron are an inextricable part of it. And this year, the cauldron will burn in Paris from July 26 during the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.
A design object that’s often full of meaning, a new torch is created for every Olympics. Following his selection by Maison&Objet as Best Designer of the Year 2024, French designer Mathieu Lehanneur was tasked with creating this year’s torch.
A secret process that lasted nine months ending in January, twenty people worked on laser cutting, welding, and assembling the steel torch. Their creation weighs around 1.5 kg and is 70 cm in length. Two thousand torches were produced, a fifth of the number normally made.
Having copies for each phase of the process streamlines the busy preparations for the opening of the Games, with the torch relays scattered throughout the country – including at the Cannes Film Festival, where the torchbearer was French basketball player Iliana Rupert, who plays with Italy’s Virtus Bologna team.
Lehanneur drew his inspiration for the design from the themes of equality, water, and peace. As one of the three fundamental French values, equality is an important focus of these Games and will be reflected in many ways, including gender equality. And for the first time, the same number of male and female athletes will be competing.
Water reflects both the starting point of the relays in Olympia across the Mediterranean, but also, and in particular, the key role to be played by the Seine in the 2024 Games. Besides the Opening Ceremony, various swimming competitions will be held along the famous river that bisects the City of Light. To represent the element, Lehanneur gave the torch a series of wave effects.
The last theme is peace. The Olympic flame has always been a symbol of unity between nations and people. This takes on greater importance today, with wars on so many fronts. The curves and rounded lines of the torch therefore represent a message of solidarity, with the golden ring in the center acting as a unifying element.
All these principles are then complemented by the design of the cauldron, which the torch will light at the climax of the Opening Ceremony. The cauldron is also full of symbolism, with the ring that surrounds it representing brotherhood. For this reason, Lehanneur drew upon the purity of water’s shape, color, and consistency for its design.
The journey of the Olympic torch, which began in Olympia on April 22, is about to end in Paris, with the Opening Ceremony taking place in just one week.
>>> The Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics to be held on the Seine
Photography by Felipe Ribon, courtesy of Mathieu Lehanneur
