Andrzej Duda was handed the Flame of Peace at a ceremony in Rome, Italy, on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The president received the Flame from the head of the Association of European Olympic Committees (EOC), Spyros Capralos, who hosted the event at Rome’s Ara Pacis museum.
Duda then passed the Flame to Poland’s race walking legend Robert Korzeniowski.
The four-time Olympic champion symbolically lit the Torch, which then set off on its way to Poland, first carried by Poland's triple Olympic hammer throw champion Anita Włodarczyk, who thus began the Torch Relay for the 2023 European Games.
‘Poland’s biggest sporting event since Euro 2012’
In a speech to the gathering, the Polish president said: “In 80 days’ time, after covering more than 1,500 kilometres, this Flame will be warming the hearts of over 7,000 athletes from all over Europe, who will come to our country to compete in the world’s biggest sporting event of 2023, the European Games.”
Duda said Polish people were “deeply moved and extremely proud” that Poland would host the 2023 European Games, “the second-biggest sporting event in the history of our country,” after the 2012 European football championships.
The president expressed hope that the Games would proceed “in the spirit of friendly sporting rivalry” and “be a symbol of peace and friendship.”
President thanks EG 2023 organisers for banning Russian and Belarusian athletes over Ukraine war
The president thanked EOC’s Capralos and all the organisers “for your decision to hold the European Games without the representatives of Russia and Belarus. Russia, which is the attacker country, the aggressor country, which started the war in Ukraine, and the Belarusian regime which is supporting it.”
He said he was speaking as a representative of the host country, but also “of a country that today is home to some 2 million refugees from Ukraine, who had to flee the war.”
Duda noted that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was due to visit Poland on Wednesday.
He said: “Thank you for enabling me, as the host of the European Games, to look President Zelensky in the eye and tell him: ‘Volodymyr, these Games will be the Games of peace and tranquility, where we won’t have to pretend that everything is OK.”
The 2023 European Games
The 2023 European Games start in the southern Polish city of Kraków on June 21 and run until July 2.
Kraków and 10 other southern Polish cities are preparing to host the 3rd European Games, which will feature 12 days of competition in 29 sports.
More than 7,000 athletes from 48 countries are expected to take part in the event, which will also provide opportunities to win European championship medals and a pathway to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in some of the sports.
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Source: PAP, prezydent.pl, tvp.pl
Click on the audio player above to listen to a report by Radio Poland's Ada Janiszewska.