One of my abiding memories of the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic race in 2015 was sitting in a discreet corner of a bar in Kuala Lumpur's Mandarin Oriental on the eve of the vote between Almaty and Beijing. 

The Netherlands are famed for their total football tactical theory, which first came to global prominence at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, when the nation reached their first final. Their philosophy that any outfield player could take over the role of any other player in a team was revolutionary and was key to the development of the game.

First a German lawyer, now the International Biathlon Union (IBU).

A few years ago, Peter Ueberroth told me that he still remembers being woken by a 3am phone call telling him that a full contingent of Chinese athletes would attend the 1984 Olympics.

I don’t know why it is. It may be that I am weary, so very tired and weary of all the things I hear spoken or see written that I know are not true, that those who speak or write them also know are not true. But whatever the reason, I find myself thinking of the International Paralympic Committee press conference held in Rio de Janeiro a month before the Paralympic Games began there in which the organisation’s President, Sir Philip Craven, announced a blanket ban on Russian athletes.

We begin the New Year with a great deal of excitement and optimism.  Last year was not just another great year for taekwondo, it was possibly our best ever.

Had he lived, Muhammad Ali would have been 75 today. 

Another week has gone by, and with it another series of meetings, criticisms, denial and counter-attacks in the seemingly endless crusade on Russian doping problems.

We all know that weightlifting was already on the programme of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. At that time - and for many years more - only men competed in the sport.

Should the International Olympic Committee (IOC) appoint the hosts of both the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games when it meets in Lima this year?

As we begin 2017 with the fresh optimism a new year brings, it is with great pleasure and pride that it also holds such positivity for the Amateur International Boxing Association, filled with opportunities to create lasting legacies for boxing and ready to showcase the depth of talent of our athletes around the world. 

I may be out on a limb here, but I don’t think this week's FIFA Council reforms for the World Cup finals in 2026 and beyond have gone far enough.

The bell has sounded for 2017 and although a punch has yet to be thrown in earnest we can anticipate a very happy and ever-more prosperous New Year for boxing.

We cannot say we were not warned. There it is, spread over three pages of then FIFA Presidential candidate Gianni Infantino’s lavish 50-page manifesto, under the heading "World Cup expanded to 40 teams".