How much more can we take? This is the question that almost 120 weightlifting countries - if not more - are asking.

So it looks like we can add another imperfection to the long list of blemishes at Rio’s perfectly imperfect Games (have I got that right?): the food.

It has been a year which sport surely would prefer to forget. A veritable annus horribilis which has seen the games we play or watch lurch from crisis to unseemly crisis, plunging deep into the gutter - and beyond. 

From where he was sitting in the Salle de Mer of Monaco’s Fairmont Hotel last Thursday, Haile Gebrselassie had a view clear over the Mediterranean Sea. But as his gaze fell on that mass of sun-dazzled, shifting water, his vision was of his Ethiopian homeland and what he hoped to do for those athletes following in his illustrious wake.

I spent much of my visit to Tokyo last week for the Rio 2016 debrief and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission inspection staying in a quintessentially Japanese capsule hotel.

During the final days of November, numerous Australian high school graduates begin making their way to Gold Coast for week-long holidays after their last exams. The city becomes host to the annual "schoolies", with parties taking place as the students aim to let their hair down.

On Monday (December 5), a five-day inspection of preparations for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast is due to begin in the beautiful Australian city, with Coordination Commission members likely to be greeted by glorious weather and a genuine feeling of warmth for the event from local residents.

Let’s begin by giving the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a little credit.

By storing Olympic athletes’ anti-doping samples for possible reanalysis for a number of years, in the knowledge that analytical methods will probably improve over time, the IOC has put in place a valuable tool that could, if utilised to fullest extent, afford periodic snapshots of the true level of doping in elite sport, albeit some years after the event.

As the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) website attests, the number of its affiliated federations has grown dramatically from the 17 founding members in 1912. "The total number of countries and territories currently affiliated to the IAAF stands at 214, which places the IAAF among the world’s largest sporting organisations, and with more members than the United Nations," it reads.

What the hell has been happening to sport? Sleaze and scandals by the bucket-load.

Earlier this month, we announced a new partnership with a sporting team. Nothing unusual in that. Brands like SKINS do it all the time.

Last week began with a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Foundation Board meeting in Glasgow, presented as a seminal step and turning-point in the global fight against drugs in sport.

At a time when there are so many problems in the world, it was refreshing to be in attendance at this week’s Peace and Sport Forum in Monaco.

In a press release back in May, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach insisted they were "showing once more our determination to protect the integrity of the Olympic competitions" by retesting samples from Beijing 2008 and London 2012.