The final countdown to the start of the 2024 Olympic Games is underway. From tomorrow until August 11, Paris will be transformed into a sports stadium, hosting competitions in the various disciplines in every corner. The opening ceremony of this event takes place on July 26, but some events have already been taking place during the days of this week. While sports such as football have already started to play matches, in order to speed up and expedite the numerous qualifying rounds, the Olympic flame has also been carried around France for two months. It has stopped in Montreuil, Bagnolet, Romainville or Drancy, and will complete its relay chain this Friday in Saint-Denis. The person in charge of holding it will not be a famous athlete or sporting icon, but the American rapper Snoop Dogg: why him?
The artist will be among the bearers of the Olympic flame on the last day of the relay before the opening ceremony. “The fact that the flame will be passing through Saint-Denis on the last day, just before joining the opening ceremony, is a sign of the place of Seine-Saint-Denis in the Olympic dynamic,” explained the mayor, Mathieu Hanotin. Snoop Dogg has thus become one of the lucky ones to hold the iconic flame, which is often passed between the hands of not only athletes, but also well-known artists. The rapper will be involved in several ways in these Olympic Games, as he will also act as a sports commentator for the American broadcaster NBC.
Los Angeles-born Dogg joins a number of other rappers and hip-hop artists who have previously carried the Olympic torch at various Olympic Games. Sean “Diddy” Combs carried the torch at the 2004 Athens Games, while British rapper Dizzee Rascal and Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am were involved in the build-up to the 2012 London Games. Snoop Dogg will also carry the iconic flame alongside other torchbearers including actress Laetitia Casta, rapper McSolaar and former Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka.