Europe Triathlon

ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado attended the Handing over Ceremony of the Olympic Flame by the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) to the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in the Panathenaic Stadium yesterday in Athens, Greece. Prior to the ceremony Casado took part in the Torch Relay as a Torchbearer.

Since the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia on 10 May it has been carried in an eight-day relay across Greece. Casado was among the Torchbearers on the final day of the relay in Greece before it was officially handed over to a London 2012 representative during the early-evening ceremony.

The flame was then flown to the UK where it will undergo a 70-day relay beginning at Land’s End. The flame will travel 8,000 miles around every region of the country before arriving in Stratford’s Olympic Stadium to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 27 July.

Coinciding with the Handing over Ceremony, Casado also attended the opening of the 18th World Collectors Fair in the historical monument of Zappeion Megaron, the first building in the world to be constructed to serve Olympic needs and synonymous with the Olympic movement. Hosted by the International Olympic Committee and HOC from 17 to 20 May, the fair gathers collectors from all over the world and includes an Olympic Memorabilia Exhibition “Greece and the Olympic Games: 1894 – 2012”.