Gold medal-winning eventer carries Olympic torch through heart of Paris on Bastille Day

Eventing gold medallist Colonel Thibaut Vallette carried the Olympic torch into the heart of Paris on Bastille Day in a significant moment in the flame’s journey to the 2024 Olympics.

During the Bastille Day celebrations on Sunday (14 July), Thibaut carried the torch on horseback to the presidential grandstand – flanked by mounted horsemen of the Cadre Noir.

French president Emmanuel Macron shared a video of the event, describing it as “exceptional moment of the parade”.

A total of 220 torchbearers were involved in the relay in the French capital, including former international footballer Thierry Henry on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and former tennis player Yannick Noah, who lit the celebration cauldron in front of the Hôtel de Ville.

The Olympic torch has around nine more stops on its journey, before returning to Paris for the opening ceremony (26 July).

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach called on the world to “come together to celebrate and to enjoy together spectacular Olympic Games Paris 2024”, in an opinion piece published across three national French titles.

“The stage is set: the athletes are ready, all of France is ready, the Olympic movement is ready,” he said. “These Olympic Games will be about sport – and about more than sport.”

Thibaut, écuyer en chef (director) of the Cadre Noir, was part of the winning French side in Rio 2016 with his great championship team campaigner Qing Du Briot IFCE. Thibaut and the Selle Français gelding, owned by the Institut Français du Chevalier, competed at Badminton in 2017 and also helped France to world team bronze in 2018, plus individual and team bronze medals at the 2015 Europeans.

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