Tharshan Selvarajah carries Olympic torch in France

Award-winning celebrity baker Tharshan Selvarajah made history today as the first Sri Lankan to carry the Olympic Torch for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Several French-Sri Lankans had lined the streets of Paris to cheer Tharshan as he carried the Olympic torch, according to the Embassy of Sri Lanka in France.

As the Olympic flame touched down in France from Greece back in May, excitement had brewed for the relay involving 10,000 torchbearers representing diverse stories of achievement.

Among them shines a Paris-based, Sri Lankan-born baker, Tharshan Selvarajah, who only arrived in France for the first time in 2006.

Known for his award-winning baguettes, he makes history as the first Sri Lankan torchbearer in the annals of the Olympic Games.

In 2023, the winner of the “Grand Prize of the Traditional French Baguette,” organized by the Paris City Hall, was the baguette made by Tharshan Selvarajah, after which he received the opportunity to supply baguettes to France’s presidential palace.