On May 8 in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), emotion is likely to be there for Brigadier-Chief Margareth Potier. Indeed, the one who usually officiates within the recruitment unit of the National Police of Oissel (Seine-Maritime) will don the costume of guardian of the Olympic flame when it comes down from the “Belem”, the sailboat which will have been transported from the site of Olympia in Greece.
“My role will be to ensure that the flame never goes out, to ensure its integrity within a team of nine people made up of police officers, but also soldiers, gendarmes or members of civil protection” . Selected from hundreds of candidates, there will be only a few dozen in total to accompany the torch bearers – there will be around 11,000 of them and will each cover 200 m – during the relays which will take place in around sixty French departments and in overseas territories. But their mission will not strictly speaking be security. “There will be a sort of safety bubble around us. We are there, from morning to evening when there are specific ceremonies, so that the torchbearers make the right gestures from one passage to the next, that the torches are operational and that everyone benefits from this exceptional moment” . The rest of the time, the guardians of the flame will watch, even in their room, over the lanterns – there are several emergency ones – which contain the sacred fire.
Tribute to volunteers
Present over three sessions of around ten days, and in particular during the torch's journey in Normandy, Margareth will be the only police officer in the region to carry out this mission for which this enthusiast of sport in general, and of cycling in particular, has applied several months ago. “It was my superior who told me, look, we received an email that should interest you. I think you have the profile.”
A high-level sporting profile in the field of cycling – she notably competed in the Junior World Championships in 1992 – before having to put an end to her young career after a serious accident. “But I never gave up on sport even if today I took up running.” Always with this desire to surpass oneself and the desire to give a collective dimension to a sport that is inherently individual.
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Having become a police officer in her thirties, she will for a time bring her skills to supervise the French police cycling team. A passion transmitted in particular by her father, who died last year, who will necessarily accompany her a little when she runs alongside this flame, synonymous for many with the Olympic dream. “I don’t see it as revenge for my accident, a bit as if I were living my own Games through this necessarily unique experience. It's so symbolic... I rather have the feeling that through me it is all the volunteers who keep sport alive on a daily basis who are being honoured. Without them, there are no clubs, no high-level sport, no kids who can discover a sporting activity, but above all values which still remain with me today. They are the ones I will represent and that is what makes me proud.”