Six famous Monaco figures, including Prince Albert II, Princess Charlene and F1 winner Charles Leclerc, will have the honour of carrying the eternal Olympic flame as it passes through the Principality.
It has been revealed that when the Olympic torch arrives in Monaco, on Tuesday 18th June, it will be handed to Monegasque Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who recently won the Monaco Grand Prix. The 26-year-old will have the honour of bearing the flame for its first leg, which will begin at the Juan Manuel Fangio statue in Port Hercule at 2.15pm.
Leclerc will then pass the flame to the second elected torchbearer, the alpine skier Alexandra Coletti, who represented Monaco in the 2006 Winter Olympics. She will in turn hand the torch to table tennis player Xiaoxin Yang, who has played under Monegasque colours since 2013 and became an official citizen of the Principality in 2017. The flame will then pass to Rudy Rinaldi, who has appeared at both the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.
The 30-year-old bobsledder will carry the torch up to the Malizia statue in the Place du Palais before handing it on to Prince Albert and Princess Charlene, who will jointly act as torchbearers for the flame’s final leg on the Rock of Monaco.
See more: The Olympic flame is coming to Monaco
Both Prince Albert and Princess Charlene have competed in the Olympics.
The Prince has participated in an impressive five Winter Olympics as part of Monaco’s bobsleigh team and has already been a torchbearer 10 times, beginning in 1996 ahead of the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Princess Charlene, meanwhile, famously competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, representing South Africa. Her team finished fifth in the 4×100-metre medley relay.
Monaco’s Olympic history
While spectators will be able to enjoy the show from various points along the route, including the starting location, along the Avenue du Port and at the Place du Marché corner, those waiting for the flame in the Place du Palais will have the added experience of a special open-air exhibition that will tell the story of Monaco’s involvement in the Olympics over the years.
A montage of archival photographs and images curated by the Audiovisual Institute of Monaco and the Archives of the Palace of Monaco will recount the more than 100 years of the Principality’s participation in the Games, from the bronze medal award to the Monegasque architect Julien Médecin at the end of the 19th century for his urban planning drawings, a disciple that featured on the programme at the time, to the Paris Olympic Games in 1924, which saw John B. Kelly, the father of Princess Grace and the maternal grandfather of Prince Albert II, take gold in the double sculls rowing event.
The complete route that the torch will take can be found here.
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Photo credit: Palais Princier de Monaco