The relay for the torch of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games from Greece to France is underway after it was lit in ancient Olympia on Tuesday.

The lighting of the torch took place during a traditional ceremony in which Mary Mina, a Greek actress, took the role of the high priestess and ignited the torch with a backup flame, according to a report.

Traditionally, a parabolic mirror is used, but the backup flame was employed due to cloudy skies.

The torch will now travel on a 68-day relay before it arrives in the French capital, where it will set ablaze the Olympic Flame and signal the start of the Olympic Games on July 26, the report noted.

Greek Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Ntouskos is the first runner in the relay, and he will hand off the flame to three-time French Olympic medalist and swimmer Laure Manaudou, who serves as the representative of the host city.

“In these difficult times we are living through, with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news they are facing day in and day out,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said.

“We are longing for something which brings us together, something that is unifying, something that gives us hope. The Olympic flame that we are lighting today is the symbol of this hope,” he added.

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Regarding the war in Ukraine, the IOC will allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutral athletes, but they will not compete under their nations’ flags or anthems, according to the report.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Russia would receive a request to observe a ceasefire during the Olympics, a standard practice in Ancient Greece, the report noted, but Russian officials are wary the Ukrainians might use that opportunity to regroup and resupply their forces.