Tens of thousands of people welcomed the Olympic torch Wednesday in the southern French city of Marseille, marking another milestone in the lead-up to the Summer Games in Paris. The flame arrived after a 12-day trip from Greece onboard the Belem, a 128-year-old three-masted barque that once transported sugar from France’s colonies in the West Indies.
Reuters reports that the torch was brought to land by Florent Manaudou, France’s 2012 Olympic men’s 50 metres freestyle swimming champion, who handed it to Paralympic athlete Nantenin Keita, a 400 metres gold medallist at the Rio Games in 2016.
She then passed it on to Marseille-born rapper Jul, who lit the cauldron in front of an ecstatic crowd estimated at 150,000. Earlier a flotilla of pleasure boats had welcomed the Belem to French shores.
Belem made her maiden voyage as a cargo ship in 1896, transporting sugar from the West Indies, cocoa, and coffee from Brazil and French Guiana to Nantes, France.