Those of you who have met me will know I am not the most practical. Words such as clumsy are associated with me far too often for my liking, but it is no surprise. The evidence has been there for years.

I had an interesting experience towards the end of last year. It occurred when I visited the CEO of a prominent local sporting team to brief them about SKINS' then forthcoming social marketing campaign around supporting LGBT individuals in the sporting environment, known as #RainbowLaces.

Travis Tygart, head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, has written an op-ed commentary piece for the New York Times this week asserting that Russia should be “indefinitely banned” from all international sporting competition if doping allegations during the Sochi 2014 Winter Games are proven - allegations that, if substantiated, he regards as a “violation of the very essence of sport".

Throughout my time covering the Olympic Movement - about 15 years - we have tended to take a pretty dim view of the boycott-marred 1970s and 1980s.

Exactly 50 years ago last weekend 41,000 people streamed into Arsenal’s old ground at Highbury to witness Muhammad Ali thwart a revenge bid by Henry Cooper, keeping his world heavyweight title by opening a deep, jagged cut in the sixth round on the Londoner’s left eyebrow.

Last week was a chance for the sports world to react and pause for breath following revelations of doping and corruption which, if proven, could still rip it apart.

The Olympic Cauldron which stands at the heart of the village in Ancient Olympia is a reminder of the only year three Olympic flames were lit in the same year. It happened 60 years ago.

London 2012 flyweight bronze medallist Marlen Esparza could be forgiven for feeling the pressure as she prepares to embark on another Women’s World Boxing Championships campaign here in Kazakhstan’s capital.

It was terrific to be part of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Anti-Corruption Summit and have the opportunity to join the esteemed panel to talk about the scope and opportunity to address corruption issues in sport. 

I was talking to someone at a New York radio station this week on the broad subject of cheating in sport, and specifically “mechanical doping” in cycling, which was confirmed for the first time in competition earlier this year and resulted last month in the six-year suspension of a Belgian cyclo-cross rider.

It is a rare day when I find myself agreeing with Yelena Isinbaeva.

Russia’s doping scandals are rather like those traditional wooden dolls tourists bring back home after visiting that country. Open up one and another is revealed. And so on.

I was at Wembley yesterday to watch my local team, Forest Green Rovers, attempt to become the first village club to make it into one of the four divisions that constitute the English Football League. A club that, since being saved from administration by an environmentalist millionaire, have banned all meat products at their ground and use cow manure rather than chemicals to fertilise the pitch.

When we talk about the high performance system that underpins elite sport, there can often be misinterpretation around what this means.