ATHENS - Paris 2024 Olympics organisers on Friday received the Games' flame in a handover ceremony in Athens ahead of a 68-day torch relay that will end with the opening ceremony on July 26.

The flame arrived at the central Athens' Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896, after an 11-day relay across Greece and following the lighting in ancient Olympia last week.

Several thousand fans and tourists sat in the stands of the horse-shaped marble stadium on a sun-drenched afternoon as the head of the Paris Games, Tony Estanguet, received the torch from Greek Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos.