Olympic torch-lighting ceremony explained: What to know ahead of the Paris Games

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A priestess prays to a dead sun god in front of a fallen Greek temple. If the sky is clear, a flame spurts that will burn in Paris throughout the world’s top sporting event. Speeches ensue.

On Tuesday, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony.

It will then be carried through Greece for more than 3,100 miles before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896.

PARIS PREPARES FOR 100-DAY COUNTDOWN TO OLYMPICS, AIMING TO REIGNITE PASSION FOR THE GAMES

Here’s a look at the workings and meaning of the elaborate ceremony held among the ruins of Ancient Olympia ahead of each modern Olympiad.

Couldn't the Academy Awards just be announced in a conference call?

The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It's meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modeled.

Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, playing the role of the High Priestess, lights the torch during the lighting of the Olympic flame at Ancient Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Olympics, in southwestern Greece on Oct. 18, 2021. On April 16, 2024, the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics was lit and carried through Greece for more than 3,100 miles before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens site of the first modern Olympics. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

Once it's been carried by any means imaginable to the host city — it's been beamed down by satellite,