“It will come back every summer”: the famous Olympic cauldron will make its grand return to Paris

La vasque olympique fera son grand retour chaque été jusqu’en 2028 MAXPPP – Marc OLLIVIER

Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday, January 31, that the Olympic cauldron, the star of the Paris Olympics with its 30-meter-high helium balloon, would return to Paris “every summer” until the next Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

The Olympic cauldron, the emblematic symbol of the Paris 2024 Games, made a lasting impression by rising into the sky for the first time in the Tuileries Gardens on July 26, 2024.

Designed by Mathieu Lehanneur, the Olympic cauldron sparked a wave of enthusiasm, with tens of thousands of people rushing every day to see it take off.

Its uncertain future had caused a lot of talk, with a petition gathering nearly 15,000 signatures having been put online to perpetuate the legacy of the Paris 2024 Games. Even the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo had expressed to President Macron her wish to keep it.

“It will come back every summer”

“It will come back every summer. From the music festival to sports festival, until the Los Angeles Games”, declared the President of the Republic on the social network X.

It will be installed again in the Tuileries Garden, which separates the Louvre pyramid from the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées.

Emmanuel Macron proposed establishing a Sports Festival every year on September 14, similar to the Music Festival (June 21), with “demonstrations and competitions” to cultivate a taste for and practice of sports.

The president suggested keeping the cauldron, beyond the technical issues involved, “by working with the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and the Mayor of Paris”, noted a close friend of the head of state.

“Technical work has been undertaken to revive the magic of the elevation in the sky of Paris. It will be, like the sports festival, one of the many elements of the legacy of the games”, he added.

A unifying emblem

“What a joy!”, posted Anne Hidalgo, who wanted to keep this unifying emblem of the Games, on Instagram. “This is very, very good news”, she added.

The “100% electric” flame ring, as touted by its designer, EDF, is in reality a play of lights projected onto a “cloud of water”. It pays homage to the first flight in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon, which took place in 1783 in the Tuileries Gardens.