Monaco is set to welcome the prestigious Olympic Flame for only the second time in history, following its first visit in 1968. The torch will pass through the Principality on Tuesday, June 18, ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
An impressive lineup of six significant individuals will bear the torch, with Monaco’s own Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc taking the lead as the first torchbearer. Leclerc will begin his leg of the relay from La Rascasse and pass the flame to Alpine skier Alexandra Coletti, the first Monegasque woman to participate in the Winter Olympic Games.
Coletti will then hand the torch to table tennis player Xiaoxin Yang, who was the Principality’s flag bearer in Tokyo and has qualified for the Paris games. Yang will start the climb up to Le Rocher along the Avenue de la Porte Neuve before passing the flame to bobsledder Rudy Rinaldi, who placed sixth at the Beijing Games in 2022 and carried the flag in PyeongChang in 2018.
Monaco’s younger students will form a guard of honor along the ascending road to the rock, while the Carabinieri Orchestra will be in formation in front of the Palace. There, HSH Prince Albert, an athlete in five consecutive Olympics from 1988 to 2002 and a member of the International Olympic Committee, will receive the torch and carry it to HSH Princess Charlène, an Olympic swimmer in 2000. The Princess will then take the flame past the Gate of Honour and a tribune of officials, where Tony Estanguet, the president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Games, will be present.
The ceremony will be broadcast live on a giant screen installed on Monday, June 17, on the Palace Square. Spectators are encouraged to arrive well in advance to secure a good view of this monumental occasion. The main road up to the palace will be closed to pedestrians between 13:00 and 14:45, and the path of the torch and the torchbearers themselves will be under high security.