(Photo by The Coca-Cola Company and Lucille Descazaux)
More than 600 torchbearers carried the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece, en route to Paris, France—the site of the 2024 Olympic Games, which commenced when the flame lit the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony on July 26. The relay tradition, which began during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin amid rising global fascism, “announces the Olympic Games and spreads a message of peace and friendship between peoples,” according to the International Olympic Committee.
Among those bearing the torch was illustrator and author Aurélia Durand, whose bright and bold illustrations have accompanied several SSIR articles, notably SSIR’s 2019 series “Breaking Through Barriers to Racial Equity.” On May 15, Durand smiled as she ran with the torch on Boulevard Jean Bourrat in Perpignan, France, despite the rain.
“I felt joyful the entire day and weeks afterward,” she says of this once-in-a-lifetime moment. “When people unite, they can do extraordinary things.”
Last Look is a recurring photography feature on the final pages of SSIR’s print magazine, featuring images that inspire from around the world of social innovation. For more from SSIR’s Fall 2024 issue, go here.
Read more stories by Marcie Bianco.