The Olympic flame that wowed the world at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony in a floating cauldron is not real but in fact 100 per cent electric, organisers have revealed.
The ‘fake’ flame is created using 40 LED lights and water mist meaning it is safe for anyone to touch.
Paris has aimed to deliver the ‘greenest Olympic games ever’ with the traditional cauldron flame usually reliant on fossil fuels.
Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, said: ‘We wanted the cauldron to use a new technology in order to not produce too many emissions.
‘We were ambitious and we wanted to bring together something spectacular and environmental responsibility at the same time.’
The Olympic flame is lit by Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
The cauldron, with the Olympic flame lit, lifts off while attached to a balloon
The ‘fake’ flame is created using 40 LED lights and water mist meaning it is safe for anyone to touch
The balloon lifts off into the night sky above Paris on Friday evening
Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner before lighting the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony
French Olympic gold medalists Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner amazed the crowd at the opening ceremony on Friday night when they performed the traditional role of transferring the torch-based flame to the Olympic cauldron.
A ring of fire then powered a hot air balloon to rise up into the night sky above Paris in a spectacular display.
The move was a nod to the Montgolfier brothers, the French pioneers of the hot air balloon.
Their first designs took flight in 1783 in the same location as the Olympic flame at Paris 2024.
The ‘fake’ flame will be lit throughout the duration of the Olympic games with the balloon grounded at the Tuileries Garden during the day.
At night the balloon will rise into the air again and hover around 30 metres above the French capital.
French designer Mathieu Lehanneur developed the new type of hot air balloon that carries a ring of fire with it.
He said: ‘This absolutely unique Cauldron represents all the spirit I wanted to give to the Olympic and Paralympic objects.
‘Light, magical and unifying, it will be a beacon in the night and a sun within reach during the day.
The cauldron, with the Olympic flame lit, lifts off while attached to a balloon
The move was a nod to the Montgolfier brothers, the French pioneers of the hot air balloon
French former football player Zinedine Zidane carries the Olympic flame past athletes
Paris has aimed to deliver the ‘greenest Olympic games ever’ with the traditional cauldron flame usually reliant on fossil fuels
Emma Terho, Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission and Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) carry the Olympic flame on July 26
The cauldron with the Olympic flame hovers over La Concorde during the Opening Ceremony
Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner before lighting the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024
The cauldron, with the Olympic flame lit, lifts off while attached to a balloon
French Paralympic athlete Marie-Amelie Le Fur holds the Olympic flame
A torchbearer carries the Olympic flame over a building along the Seine River during the opening ceremony
The cauldron, with the Olympic flame lit, lifts off while attached to a balloon
Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner before lighting the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024
‘The fire that burns in it will be made of light and water, like a cool oasis in the heart of summer.’
The use of a ‘fake flame’ in the cauldron comes after the torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was lit in ancient Olympia in a traditional ceremony.
Months before each games, the flame is lit at the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece using the light of the sun and a parabolic mirror.
However this year, Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of high priestess, lit the torch using a backup flame instead due to cloudy skies for the start of a relay in Greece and France.
The flame is then carried using torches in a relay until it arrives at the site of the opening ceremony where a cauldron is lit.
The cauldron will then burn for the duration of the Games until it is put out at the closing ceremony.
Organisers of Paris 2024 have defended the use of a ‘fake’ flame saying its use is primarily symbolic.
A spokesperson for the Games told The Telegraph: ‘For the Olympic movement, only the symbol of a Flame that does not go out before the end of the Games matters.
‘This flame is the true Olympic Flame, in the wake of the lighting ceremony in Olympia and of the Olympic Torch Relay throughout France.
‘Given the specificity of our cauldron and the technologies involved, we will still keep a lit lantern in the immediate vicinity of the Cauldron for the public to admire.’
This is not the first time that the use of a real flame has been challenged.
In the 1976 Olympics, the flame was transformed into a radio signal and broadcast to Ottawa.
