The Olympic torch will finally enter France when it reaches the southern seaport of Marseille on Wednesday. And it’s already been quite a journey.

After being lit on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, the torch was carried around Greece before leaving Athens aboard a three-mast ship named Belem, headed for Marseille.

OLYMPIC TORCH-LIGHTING CEREMONY EXPLAINED: WHAT TO KNOW AHEAD OF THE PARIS GAMES

The Belem was first used in 1896, the same year the modern Olympics came back. It will be accompanied by more than 1,000 boats as it parades around the Bay of Marseille, before arriving at the Vieux-Port, or Old Port, and docking on a pontoon resembling an athletics tracks.

Torch bearers will carry the flame across Marseille the next day, the last stretch running on the roof of the famed Stade Vélodrome, home to Marseille’s passionate soccer fans.

After leaving Marseille, a vast relay route will be undertaken before the torch’s odyssey ends with the opening ceremony of the Games on July 26 in Paris.

Here’s a look at where the torch goes before reaching Paris:

MONT-SAINT-MICHEL

The torch is due to reach the famed and visually stunning site of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy on May 31.

Located in an area of raised land surrounded by water, the island fortress looks like it was created for a Game of Thrones film set. But it’s real, and very old.

So old that it already existed during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, from 1337 to 1453. An English attack was even fended off. Later it became a prison, and in 1979 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Every years swarms of tourists are in awe of its raw and haunting beauty.

ACROSS THE OCEANS

The torch travel route is even more unique considering it takes a detour through France’s overseas territories called the Relais des Océans, or Ocean Relay. Riding the waves of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, it will be in French Guiana on June 9 before hitting New Caledonia on June 11.

Next is the island of Réunion at Saint-Denis — coincidentally the same name as the Paris suburb with the Olympic village — before reaching Papeete in the surfing realm of Tahiti, then Baie-Mahault in Gaudeloupe and finally Fort-de-France in Martinique.

The torch comes back to France on June 18 in the southern city of Nice.

FROM SEA BREEZE TO HEAVY CHEESE

Just five days after landing on French shores, the torch heads up the Alpine mountain pass of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc for Olympic Day on June 23.

The Haute-Savoie region is known for its outstanding Chamonix ski resort, which hosts World Cup races, for sweeping views across glacier fields to nearby Italy, and — some would say more importantly — as a producer of fine cheese.

A Cheese Olympics, should it be invented, would feature a sturdy crew of eight competitors from Savoie: Abondance, Beaufort, Chevrotin, Emmental, Reblochon, Tome, Tomme and the heavy-duty Raclette.

HEADING FOR PARIS

After leaving fromage-friendly Savoie, torch bearers will digest in the Doubs region of eastern France, and then visit the Alsace city of Strasbourg in the northeast.

Three days later the torch will reach Verdun, the site of one of the most horrific battles of World War I. From February to December 1916, more than 700,000 French and German soldiers were killed or wounded at the Battle of Verdun.

BASTILLE DAY ARRIVAL

The torch is to arrive on the streets of Paris on July 14 — hardly surprising, considering it’s Bastille Day, France’s national day.

The torch will stay the following day in Paris, then exit again before snaking back to the French capital via Versailles — home to the resplendent Royal Palace — and the suburbs of Nanterre on July 24 and Seine Saint-Denis on July 25.

From there, it’s to travel a very short distance back to Paris on July 26 for the grandiose opening ceremony where athletes will parade on more than 80 boats at sunset on the Seine River.

FINAL DESTINATION?

After the nearly four-hour ceremony ends shortly after 11 p.m., the cauldron will be lit at a location that is being kept top-secret until the day itself. Among reported options are such iconic spots as the Eiffel Tower and the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre Museum.

FLAME PROTECTION

A total of 10,000 people will carry the torch along its route. Local police forces on each section of the relay will help to ensure security is high, providing a security bubble around the torch and its carrier.

ECO-FRIENDLY

The torches have a lower environmental impact than those used at previous Games. They burn biogas instead of propane and are recharged when fuel runs out.

Around 2,000 torches will be used compared to more than 10,000 before, according to Georgina Grenon, the director of environmental excellence at Paris 2024. The torches are made with recycled steel and not new aluminum.

Political violence is on the rise in Germany, and news that politicians from the Green party and Social Democrats (SPD) were attacked whilst putting up voting posters on Friday in Dresden has shocked the nation.

Many, including the leaders of the SPD in Saxony, Kathrin Michel and Henning Homann, blamed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. AfD denied strongly that it was behind these attacks and said election campaigns should be without violence.

Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands gathered across major cities in Germany to protests against the far-right. Many experts fear that AfD would change the constitution, school curriculum and introduce new laws, at the very minimum.

Those who say they’ll vote for AfD often want a change in politics and complain that all the other established parties including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and SPD are the same.

Social democrats from Germany and Europe held a democracy congress in Berlin on Saturday, where they promised not to cooperate with far-right parties, in the likely event that coalitions may need to be formed. 

But is the current government doing enough to counteract the threat from the far-right?

Independent non-government organisation Amadeu Antonio Foundation spokesperson Lorenz Blumenthal told Euronews that the government is trying.

“At least they are now acknowledging what threat the far-right poses to democracy and the people living in Germany. But of course, a lot of mistakes were made in the past by not fully acting up on right wing extremism especially concerning the juridical branch. A lot of crimes remained unpunished. And that, of course, leads to a new self-consciousness of the far right, because if people are not punished for their crimes, they can repeat them and they feel in a way empowered.”

Blumenthal also suggests there is problem with image and recommends that politicians take more active steps to be more honest with voters, and admit that mistakes may have been made, “for instance, the corona pandemic, which might have seen a little too much of political restrictions.”

He also says that it would help politicians be taken more seriously by voters if they acknowledge that times are hard in global crises but also celebrate national victories. Many mainstream parties are afraid of being labelled as nationalist, so stray from being proud of achievements.

“But especially for Germany, we haven’t been doing all too bad. Germany even came out of the pandemic surprisingly well. We achieved so much as a country in terms of doing a very credible transformation towards more green energy, towards jobs,” Blumenthal acknowledges, highlighting that the recession didn’t hit Germany as hard as the AfD is portraying: The shift that really needs to happen is also to be proud of these things.”

“If we break it down,” Blumenthal adds, “the AfD is fear mongering in the best sense. They portray this apocalyptic scenario that migration will ruin Germany, that the support for Ukraine and for Israel will ruin Germany. It’s always just basically picking up votes by fearmongering.”

This tactic can be seen across populist parties in Europe: “If we go back to point X, Y, Z in time, which, for the AfD, is like the 50s, then everything will be fine. And it’s just this very nostalgic backward vision for, for Germany that I, at least, don’t want to live in,” Blumenthal says.

Roger Penske on Tuesday said he has suspended the president of Team Penske along with three others for two races for their roles in the cheating scandal that has rocked IndyCar ahead of the Indianapolis 500.

Penske said in an interview with The Associated Press that a review done by his general counsel found that the team had no “malicious intent by anyone” and chalked up the incident as a breakdown in internal processes and miscommunication.

He also said he remains committed to reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden and is actively trying to sign the two-time IndyCar champion to a contract extension.

“We’re the same company we have been for 50 years and I’m going to hold my head high,” Penske told the AP. “This is an unfortunate situation and when you’re the leader, you have to take action. We’ve done that and we’re going to move on. I am not trying to run a popularity contest.”

Tim Cindric, who oversees all of Team Penske’s operations and is the strategist for Newgarden, is the top name to receive a two-race suspension. Also suspended was team managing director Ron Ruzewski, Newgarden engineer Luke Mason and senior data engineer Robbie Atkinson.

Penske told the AP that Cindric and Ruzewski “raised their hands as the team leaders” to accept responsibility for the mess.

“For Ron and I as leaders of this team, it’s not about what we did, it’s about what we didn’t do. It is our responsibility to provide the team and all our drivers with the right processes to ensure something like this can’t happen,” Cindric said in a statement. “For that, I apologize to Roger, our team and everyone that supports us. Our number one job is to protect and enhance the reputation of our brand and that of those that support us.

“In that regard, as the overall leader, I failed, and I must raise my hand and be accountable with the others. This is a team, and in my position, it’s the right thing to do.”

Ruzewski and Atkinson both work on Will Power’s car — Ruzewski is his strategist — and Power is the only of the three Penske drivers not accused of any wrongdoing in the push-to-pass scandal. Penske acknowledged that Power had done nothing wrong and said the suspensions to his crew members were based solely on their roles within the team.

None of Scott McLaughlin’s team members were punished.

The suspensions are for two races, which cover this weekend’s event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and the Indy 500, which Penske is trying to win for a record-extending 20th time.

“That’s a big deal, a significant impact to the team, to the individuals involved,” Penske told the AP of the Indy 500 being included in the suspensions. “I talked to all of them and the goal was, ‘How can we move forward and be competitive and win? Win the next two races?’ That was the feeling I had when I left the meeting.”

Asked how Newgarden moves forward and regains the respect of his competitors, Penske said: “He’s got to do it on the racetrack. I think he understands the gravity of this thing and I need to support him.”

He said contract talks with Newgarden are ongoing but “for sure I do” want to re-sign him.

In a statement released when the suspensions were announced, Penske apologized for the team’s actions.

“I recognize the magnitude of what occurred and the impact it continues to have on the sport to which I’ve dedicated so many decades,” Penske said in the statement. “Everyone at Team Penske along with our fans and business partners should know that I apologize for the errors that were made and I deeply regret them.”

The team said an internal review was completed following IndyCar discovering that all three Penske cars had an illegal software system installed that allowed the drivers to use the push-to-pass function on starts and restarts. The system is controlled by IndyCar and disabled on starts and restarts, when the extra boost of horsepower is illegal.

IndyCar discovered it on the Penske cars in the morning warm-up at Long Beach when a glitch to the software knocked it out of all cars except the three Penske entries. IndyCar’s investigation later showed that the software had been in place in the season-opening race and Newgarden used it to his advantage an admitted three times.

McLaughlin said he used it once at St. Petersburg and Power never illegally used the software. IndyCar stripped Newgarden of the St. Pete win and McLaughlin of his third-place finish, while all three drivers were fined $25,000 and docked 10 points.

Penske owns the race team, IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and has been in damage control since series officials discovered the manipulation late last month. Cindric said the software was inadvertently left on the cars since last August when it was installed to test IndyCar’s upcoming hybrid engine.

IndyCar has said it is working on its processes to determine how it wasn’t found through inspection at the first three events to open the season.

Newgarden, meanwhile, maintains he thought there had been a rule change and the P2P system was now legal on restarts. McLaughlin said he hit the button out of habit and gained no advantage from the horsepower boost that lasted less than 2 seconds.

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AP Motorsports: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing