It was a sight to behold as the Olympic cauldron was lit up Friday beneath a hot-air balloon that rose to the sky above Paris' Tuileries Garden, as it will every night of the Olympic Games. But the Olympic flame isn't a flame at all. In fact, it's made possible by water, not fire. Forty electrically powered LED spotlights and 200 high-pressure misting nozzles combine "to give a convincing illusion of a traditional flame," the Telegraph reports. It even "flickers like a fire, though as I walked alongside it, I felt a spray of cool mist on my legs," writes Andrew Keh at the New York Times.
The Olympic flame has traditionally been powered by fossil fuels. "We wanted the cauldron to use a new technology in order to not produce too many emissions," says Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 organizing committee. "We wanted to bring together something spectacular and environmental responsibility at the same time." The result is "an environmentally sound Olympic water-based 'flame,' which is safe for anyone to touch," per the Telegraph. It's "made of light and water, like a cool oasis in the heart of summer," designer Mathieu Lehanneur says in a statement.
It's a break with tradition, certainly. At the start of its journey from Olympia, Greece, the Olympic flame is usually lit using a mirror and the light of the sun. Paris officials say the tradition continued this year with the lighting of a true flame that was carried around France for weeks. It can now be found in the shadow of the Olympic cauldron, in "a little glass box set atop a white stand," writes Keh. But that flame is largely meant to soothe traditionalists. Paris officials say the electric flame should be considered the "true Olympic flame." Paris' mayor has even suggested it could become a permanent display. (More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)
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