Gold-standard heroes: Paris Games Olympic torch relay to include Anzac epicentre in France

The only Aussie Olympics gold medallist slain in battle and a local underground hero will be among those saluted when the Paris Games torch makes a stop at a small corner of Australia overseas.

The Olympics torch will make a stop at the epicentre of Australia’s Western Front Anzac story on its way through France.

The beacon symbolising international hope and unity, carried by luminaries in a three-month relay around significant locations across France and its overseas territories ahead of this year’s Paris Games, will visit the Australian National Memorial and Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux on July 4.

A site of international solidarity … crowds walk past French and Australian flags at the close of an Anzac Day dawn ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux.

It is the site of the famous battle of 1918 where Aussie soldiers reversed a seemingly unstoppable German advance, forging a lasting link between the small town and our country.

Sources said locals had lobbied hard for Villers-Bretonneux to be included in the torch relay locations pertaining to France’s war history, including the WWII D-Day landing beaches and the famous WWI bastion of Verdun.

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Among those who will carry the torch on its leg through the Somme battlefields is Gilles Prilaux, the archaeologist who famously discovered thousands of soldiers’ names – most of them Aussies – on underground caves at nearby Naours.

Underground hero … Gilles Prilaux, pictured at the Naours Caves, will be one of those carrying the Olympic torch.

The ancient cave network, which was a popular destination for soldiers on leave behind the lines, is now one of the area’s most extraordinary and unique WWI monuments – described as a time capsule of wartime graffiti.

The Australian Olympic connection to the Somme is also underscored by the number of Olympians who served there, most famously Sydney swimmer Cecil Healy, the only gold medallist to die in combat.

Among 40 Aussie Olympians to serve in WWI, the 1912 Stockholm champion was killed three months after the Villers-Bretonneux battle, as Allies continued to push the Germans back, at Mont St Quentin. The war ended eight weeks later.

Cecil Healy before the war.

Cecil Healy in uniform.

Confirming the torch’s visit scheduled for 9am on July 4, the recently-appointed director of the Sir John Monash Centre, Ben Daetwyler said: “It’s wonderful that the Olympic torch relay will be visiting the Australian National Memorial and recognising Australian service and sacrifice on the Western Front.

“The local community has strongly advocated for the Memorial to be included on the route for the Olympic torch relay.

“It’s testament to the special relationship that endures between Australia and France, forged over 100 years ago in the Great War.”