The 2016 VISSLA Junior World Surfing Championships, currently taking place in the Azores, has provided the world with a first opportunity to take a look inside one of the five newly added sports to the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020 and, as it approaches its climax today, it has not disappointed.

As I said many times when I was the Sports Minister in Britain: when sport moves from the back page to the front page, it is invariably for the wrong reasons.

In all the talk, public and private, about the doping crisis in weightlifting, the victims are rarely mentioned. Victims such as Ele Opeloge.

Odd, isn’t it, how the Olympics are the worst/best thing in the world?

They say you always remember your first, whether it is a kiss, a canoodle or even a curry.

Contemplating the ashes of the current world anti-doping regime and the consequences of its forfeited credibility for the long-term marketability of Olympic sport, Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, is looking for help. 

After passing the one-year-to-go milestone with a distinct lack of fanfare last week, the next few days could be the most significant yet in the race to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics as, after weeks of speculation, Mayor Virginia Raggi is finally due to say yae or nae to whether Rome presses ahead.

There were a lot of things that threatened to overshadow the Paralympic Games in the build-up here. 

It was out with the old and in with the new earlier this week as little-known Slovenian lawyer Aleksander Čeferin replaced the disgraced Michel Platini as President of UEFA.

I promised I wouldn’t write for a while following the Olympics but it would be remiss of me not to mention the Paralympics. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to watch it as much as the Olympics Games. I was on holiday during the Olympics so I had the time and opportunity to watch; now I’m back at work with the usual busy schedule so it’s mainly highlights that I catch.

Some things in sport are relatively easy to predict.

There was a time when the raison d'etre of the old school British Olympic Association (BOA) seemed to be that the "boys and girls", as the athletes were called, marched in unison at the Opening Ceremonies of the Games and that the blazers of the copious squad of officials accompanying them were suitably pressed and brass-buttoned up. 

Exactly a year from today - September 13, 2017 - the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide the host-city of the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Another week has gone by, and, as is invariably the way these days, it has brought with it another set of fresh difficulties for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). More questions have been raised by Brazilian police over what exact role the organisation played in the process to award Irish ticketing contracts, while its President, Thomas Bach, has also been criticised for his, probably connected, decision to skip the Paralympics.