An old friend has just reminded me that we will both be in Copenhagen this weekend for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Half Marathon Championships, 20 years after being in that particularly lovely Danish city to watch Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at the European Ice Skating Championships as they warmed up for their Olympic comeback later in 1994 at the Lillehammer Winter Games.

For some reason, I associate Copenhagen - which I will be visiting for the third time - with surprises. Initially, I was surprised to see how many young women cycled insouciantly alone around the city well into the early hours of the morning.  Then I was surprised to find I could wander directly out to the city's iconic bronze statue, the Little Mermaid, which sits on a rock alongside the Langelinie promenade.

By that time, the statue - made by Edvard Eriksen in 1913 and inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen - had several times been butchered and bludgeoned, losing its original head in 1964. Four years after my visit the blameless bronze was once again decapitated although the head was found and replaced.

Torvill and Dean back on the ice in 1994  when Copenhagen brought them an unexpected bonus ©AFP/Getty Images

A surprise of a less traumatic nature lay ahead at the Championships, as the British pair, struggling to get back in tune with the judges after a decade-long absence from competition following their victory in the ice dance at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, won European gold despite arriving at the final night's free dance section in joint second place and not receiving a single first place vote from the nine judges.

It was a hugely controversial decision, although in retrospect, it all appears crystal clear. Torvill and Dean finished the compulsory figures exactly equal with the young Russian pairing of Oksana Grishchuk and Yevgeniy Platov, with Russia's world champions Maya Usova and Aleksandr Zhulin in the lead.

Usova and Zhulin performed better on the final night than Torvill and Dean, who had been working on the flawed assumption that competition was now all about technique rather than razmattaz, earning three first place votes. But a barnstorming, rock 'n roll-themed effort from the younger Russian pair earned them the free dance victory with six out of nine first places. Which naturally meant that the veteran British pair were declared overall winners, with Grishchuk and Platove earning silver. Clear now?

Copenhagen's much beleaguered Little Mermaid ©AFP/Getty Images

Fifteen years later I returned to Copenhagen to report on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session at which the summer Games of 2016 were to be awarded. Those dropping by at the Bella Center to speak up for their own bids included Pele, supporting Rio de Janeiro, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former IOC President, who made a heartfelt but ultimately vain plea on behalf of Madrid, and a nice couple from the United States who spoke warmly and articulately on behalf of Chicago's well-regarded bid. Now what were their names again? Ah yes, of course, it was President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

The surprise came shortly afterwards, as the media - penned in a writing area alongside the main hall - heard the announcement of the first round voting. Many, nay most of those present in that media area were experienced journalists not given to extravagant outpourings of emotion. But when it became clear that Chicago had made an immediate exit from the lists, having finished fourth and last behind Madrid, Rio and Tokyo, there was a huge and spontaneous expression of shock. It felt at the time as if the IOC had effectively slapped the Presidential couple in the face.

And so to 2014 - and another Copenhagen surprise. Among the 25,000 or so who will take to the fast, flat and scenic course this weekend - for only the second time in the history of this event, the main race will be run in conjunction with a mass participation race - will be the American Ambassador in Denmark, Rufus Gifford, the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Frank Jensen, Danish chef Claus Meyer and Wilson Kipketer, Denmark's former world 800m record holder.

But perhaps the most remarkable entrant will be taking place in the women's elite race – Soumaya Boussaid, one of two entries for Tunisia, recorded 1 hour 17min 04sec at the Marrakesh Half Marathon on January 26.

But the extraordinary extra fact about this 33-year-old is that she is legally blind and was double Paralympic champion over 800 and 1500 metres in the T12 category at the Beijing 2008 Games.

Boussaid will thus be emulating the achievement of US athlete Marla Runyan, also legally blind, who won medals at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics and the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics before taking third place in the US 1500m trials for the 2000 Sydney Games, where she became the first legally blind athlete to compete in the Olympics, eventually finishing as the top American with eighth place in the final.

Marla Runyan competing over 1500m at the 2000 Sydney Games, where she became the first legally blind athlete to compete in the Olympics ©Getty Images

Boussaid's time is highly respectable, but unlikely to put her anywhere near medal territory. But she already has a massive badge of honour.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.