When the curtain came down on London's smash-hit East End production and 2012's cast of thousands took a thoroughly-deserved bow, the Olympic chorus sang out one word loud and clear: legacy.

Just over six months later the buzzword has become a hollow word.

The coming demolition of Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium, the second biggest athletics hub in Britain, alma mater of Jessica Ennis and at one time Sebastian Coe, is just the tip of very treacherous, Titanic-sized iceberg threatening to sink the future sport had been promised.

All over the country local councils are cutting back on their funding for grass roots sport, largely blaming the Government's economic policy. It some cases this may be true, in others it's just a handy excuse to play a disturbing game of political correctness.


"Short-sightedness of us a nation", is how Ennis describes the Don Valley debacle, calling for a major rethink of how sport in Britain is organised and funded.

Her coach Tony Minichiello says Sheffield City Council's decision to sacrifice the 25,000-capacity stadium, originally built in 1991 for the World Student Games, in a bid to cut £50 million ($76 million/€58 million) from its budget was a retrograde step that sends out the wrong message about our commitment to sport.

But he adds that it is unrealistic to expect local authorities to fund leisure facilities such as the £29 million ($44 million/€34 million) venue without greater support from national Government.

Which is considerable food for thought for Lord Coe, now the Government's sports legacy guru and original architect of the Olympic dream.

Generally, this is a rotten time for sport's foot soldiers, with the Olympic euphoria now a distant echo. Many have had had their Lottery funding withdrawn or slashed, and are jobless.

And as for Britain's brilliant Paralympians, how many will now lose their Disability Living Allowance and thus have to curtail their sports careers?


Meanwhile, back in Sheffield's Unhappy Valley, Mike Corden, chairman of City of Sheffield Athletics Club is furious, describing the stadium as the best in the country for athletics. "The writing was on the wall when they didn't instantly rename it after Jess following the Olympics," he says.

"We asked that question immediately but the politicians averted their eyes and waited for it to go away.

"Lord Coe should have intervened in his capacity as Games legacy ambassador. Someone should have been on the phone to him – now he seems desperate for the issue to go away.

"Last year Boris Johnson, Coe, David Cameron and Tessa Jowell were all preening themselves – let them all come and look here at what has been left here.

"Is this the legacy that Coe wanted?"

Good question and one that surely must embarrass Baron Coe of Ranmore.

Have you ever considered why Las Vegas has no major league sports franchises?

Until recently, I hadn't either, but I reckon we're now at the point where sport across the world has to clearly state its values AND live by them - just as American sport has done with the gambling capital of the world.

In my last blog, I spoke about the challenge international sport faces in combating cheating – namely doping and match fixing. Gambling is another practice that has attracted sinister forces and it's simply impossible for sport to retain its credibility when administrators talk about the need to eradicate match fixing and spot-fixing one minute and then sign a commercial deal with a betting company or a casino in the next.

In the United States, gambling is a restricted practice, so Government regulation plays a big part in sport's position on the issue. But within that framework, the NFL, for example, regulates itself and there is no advertising related to gambling either at the games themselves or during coverage.

The race to join the 2020 Olympic Games sports programme has been a long and slightly confusing one but things dramatically appear to be taking shape as we approach the final stages.

It was in July 2011 that eight sports were shortlisted for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics: baseball, karate, roller sports, softball, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu.

Last year, the eight sports morphed into seven bids following the decision of baseball and softball to combine and become one bid. Things looked relatively simple at that stage - one of the sevens bids comes in for the 2020 Games and one existing Olympic sport goes out to make way for it.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Buenos Aires in September was always the immovable deadline when the decision would be made and therefore it was no surprise to see hard campaigning from nearly all the bidders as 2013 came around.

But a giant spanner was thrown into the works at the recent IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne when wrestling was cut from the list of core sports after Rio 2016.

That decision has been met with fury from real heavyweights, not least the formidable Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The IOC are said to be shocked such a fierce backlash to the decision and the big losers here could in fact be the seven original bidders.

Since the shortlist was announced in July 2011, the bidders have spent almost two years campaigning to see off their rivals – in some cases spending huge amounts of money (legally to the very best of my knowledge).

Should they get to Buenos Aires, and wrestling be voted straight back in, which is a very realistic possibility, there would be understandable anger from every bid.

The watershed moment in all this has now become next IOC Executive Board meeting, which is due to take place in St Petersburg, Russia, from May 29-31.

At that vital meeting, all seven bids, along with wrestling, will present to the Executive Board, stating their case to secure that prestigious spot at the 2020 Olympics, worth millions of dollars in televison revenue and sponsorship money.

The next step in not set in stone, but it is understood that following the presentations, the Executive Board will put forward just three sports for the full IOC Session to vote on in Buenos Aires. The growing belief is that if wrestling can get itself into this group of three, then its chances of being kept on the programme will increase dramatically, with the likes of Putin calling in favours from several IOC members he is close to.


Wrestling will underline the fact that it has appeared in every Olympic Games, except one, since the founding of the Modern Games in 1896 and that it can trace its heritage back to the Ancient Olympics in 708BC.

But is it time for modernisation for the greatest sporting event on earth.

Since the shortlist was announced in July 2011, I have had close dealings with all eight of the bidding sports in some form or another. My dealing this week took me to the Westway Sports Centre in London where the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) staged a special event to promote climbing's bid for the 2020 Olympics.

I've just been walking in a sporting wonderland.

It's called the Scandinavium, and tonight a part of this vast complex of interlinked halls in Gothenburg's city centre has been given over to the athletics discipline which, other than perhaps the hammer throw and the 50 kilometres walk, can claim to be this sport's Most Deeply Unappreciated. Yes. We're talking about the shot put.

In common, I suspect, with many followers of athletics down the years - why is it we never go up the years, by the way? And come to that, why is it we always go by the way and not along the way? But I digress – so yes, in common with them, I have been guilty of neglecting, and often ignoring, the mighty battles which have taken place in that sector which always seems to be in the most distant corner of any arena. I'm sure that for the spectators down by the shot put circle it seems closer – but that is a relative term, given that it is always separated from even those in the front row of seating by eight lanes of tartan track and a selection of milling officials.

But it is surprising how a change of viewpoint can alter one's perception.

An overview of the action at the Scandinavium arena shot put qualifying

The decision to stage the men's and women's shot put qualifying rounds - opening events in the 2013 European Indoor Championships - on the evening before the main action gets underway, and in their own specially constructed arena, has provoked just the kind of intense curiousity the organisers had been hoping for.

Although their scheme was characterised earlier in the day by the European Athletics Director General  Christian Milz as "a new concept", it is an idea which has been tested on a few occasions within the context of the Samsung Diamond League, which has staged the shot put final in the concluding meeting at Zurich in the echoing space of the Hauptbahnhof concourse.

But this is a championship first. And compared to the attention levels the shot put qualifying round would have attained in any previous championships, the upshot, as it were, was a massively positive one.

By the halfway point in the first round of three throws for the men, the specially laid shot put circle, with its sector of thick blue matting, was surrounded by craning spectators four or five deep. The first action I was aware of as I approached was a roar of effort and a thudding impact, shortly before a shot reared up into the fine black netting separating onlookers from the action at the back of the target area.

Ralf Bartels of Germany gets into his stride in shot put qualifying

Even though those present knew the netting was there, and it had happened similarly on a number of previous occasions, there were those among them who could not stifle the instinct to rear back their heads as the rogue cannonball thrashed briefly in the rigging in front of them. There could have been no more graphic representation of the weight and power of this event.

A grandstand to the left of the throwers was packed. Every space. And the long glass gallery above was filled with the intrigued faces of athletes, in every colour of national uniform, who had wandered along from their hotel within the complex. These competitors will be able to go from their room to the warm-up track to the arena without ever having to put themselves at the mercy of the great outdoors. Not that the Gothenburg weather is that problematic right now, the snow and fog of earlier in the week having given way to milder temperatures.

The action itself was well explained by two presenters, one of whom was the Sydney 2000 Olympic 400 metres bronze medallist Katharine Merry.

"Some of these throwers glide over the circle, some of them spin over the circle," she explains as the next thrower lumbers into position in the circle, just feet away from the faces of spectators and the lenses of covering photographers. "So here comes Ralf Bartels, definitely in with a chance of qualifying for tomorrow night's final with a first round effort of 19.61." Bartels roars, releases. The weight thuds into the blue matting, rears up into the black netting. "Right in the middle of those two solid white lines," says Merry, crouching down with her microphone to get a better view of the measuring. "19.80. That's impressive." There is a rumble of appreciation. "So Bartels goes into third place overall..."

Up steps a figure in yellow and blue, Sweden's Niklas Arrhenius, to huge acclaim. It's a wave of noise, and now the spectators are supporters, picking up with a growing, rhythmic clapping. Arrhenius spins and sends the shot arcing up into the air – but overbalances in his effort. Red flag. The perils of too much goodwill...

Home thrower Niklas Arrhenius rises to the challenge

While the sequence of activity in the circle is compelling, so is the spectacle alongside it as the muscle men pace and weave amongst each other, waiting their turn. They are like mighty molecules, closely packed, but separate.

Occasionally a thrower nearest the edge will register the impact of a shot, swiftly assessing its power to impact upon their own prospects. But for the large part, these men are operating on remote, avoiding eye contact, practising throws either physically or mentally.

Ten metres away, their backs to the action, a line of spectators sit against the outside hoardings, viewing the competition on the giant screen in front of them. Perhaps the confirming power of TV seems more real to them.

By and large, however, the real activity grips the gathering. That said, the grunts and heaves, taking place with the pumping of music in the background, find another accompaniment of splashing water from a giant paddling pool further down the hall which offers children the opportunity of floating in their own giant plastic spheres, of the kind which used to hunt down Patrick McGoohan, "I am not a number, I am a free man" in the cult TV show The Prisoner as he made yet another fruitless attempt to escape over the waves.

Alongside the pool, 20 youngsters wait patiently for their turn. Still some way to go to convert them to the joys of athletics, then. Unless of course the European organisers are considering introducing sphere racing as a new event...

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. To follow him on Twitter click here.

On March 4, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Evaluation Commission, chaired by Sir Craig Reedie, will convene in Tokyo to start assessing the three candidates still in the running to host the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It might have been Rome.

It is just over a year ago – on Valentine's Day 2012, to be exact – that Rome 2020 stunned the Olympic world by pulling out of a contest some had thought it could win.

Consider, though, the background noise that would be accompanying the IOC's inspectors had the Italian capital stayed in the race: jittery markets; an electorate so disillusioned with the establishment that around one in four backed a new movement led by a comedian with great hair; and utter uncertainty over the degree to which the policy of austerity imposed on much of southern Europe in recent times in an effort to resolve the euro crisis is going to be able to continue.

Oh, and a Papal conclave.


I suppose some in and around the Olympic Movement might take a measure of satisfaction from the electoral fate of Mario Monti, the Italian Prime Minister whose Government declined to furnish Rome 2020 with the necessary financial guarantees.

But it is hard not to conclude that Monti was right.

It is also hard not to conclude that the situation in which the election has left Italy is bad news for Madrid 2020.

One feels for those associated with the Spanish bid, now vying with Tokyo and Istanbul for the ultimate prize in world sport.

In logistical terms, their city has the makings of a fine Olympic host; the Spanish capital has been as persistent as Pyeongchang, embarking on three consecutive bids; and they have people who know the Olympic Movement inside out, including a member of the IOC's Executive Board.

Yet – unless stability in Italy is quickly restored and uncertainties reduced – this latest Spanish bid risks being capsized, one feels, by forces beyond its control.


It is not that a less than booming economy is per se a bad thing for an Olympic project.

London would have found it much tougher controlling costs associated with its grandiose 2012 scheme had it been building at a time when demand for goods and services was bounding ahead.

Disciples of Keynes might well argue, indeed, that an Olympic mega-project is just the thing at a time of sluggish growth and 25 per cent unemployment.

But, as London 2012 demonstrated, a top-class 21st century Olympic plan requires unrelenting focus from its host authorities.

And, while it is true that economic circumstances in Western Europe will probably be entirely different in 2020, this focus needs, ideally, to begin almost as soon as IOC members have delivered their verdict – that is to say in September 2013.

In contrast to Italy, Spain does have a strong central Government, with the centre-right Popular Party in power since November 2011.

Yet even in such circumstances, the backlash to austerity seems to be augmenting political tensions, as suggested in recent Catalonian elections when parties seeking Catalan independence came first and second.


A more pressing source of concern, of course, is something Spain has in common with Italy: its currency.

If a state's currency, its money, is in crisis, either because it is losing value on international exchanges, or because opposition to tax rises and swingeing spending cuts reaches the point where a country, or countries, are driven seriously to contemplate leaving the eurozone, it is asking an awful lot of that state to stay focused to the necessary degree on preparations for a sports event.

And while we are not there yet, and the interconnectedness of the modern world means that Spain would probably be impacted by turmoil in Greece or Italy even if its unit of exchange was still the peseta, the euro's nature as a supra-national currency, makes such linkages both more direct and more complex for politicians to manage.

Madrid 2020 has many attributes, and it could just be that the accumulated impact of a decade's intensive lobbying helps to produce a better outcome than I currently anticipate.

But, really, Italian voters have done it no favours.

Could it be that the rise of Beppe Grillo's Five-Star Movement has a hand in determining where the Five-Ring Movement chooses to pitch its most spectacular tent seven years from now?

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.

It is exactly 49 years this week since a breathtakingly brash young man named Cassius Marcellus Clay became Muhammad Ali and won the world heavyweight title against Sonny Liston.

Sadly, there are serious worries that the greatest figure in boxing's rich history may not live to see the "golden anniversary" of an event that in his words "shook up the world".

There are conflicting stories about the current state of Ali's health. At 71, paralysed and muted by Parkinson's disease, an affliction unquestionably acerbated by having at least ten fights too many, he is said by some to be on the brink of death.

The rumour-mongers are largely those family members from whom he has become estranged, notably his brother Rahman and son Muhammad Ali Jnr (one of his nine children) who claim they are being frozen out by fourth wife Lonnie as heirs to his $30 million (£20 million/€23 million) fortune.

Lonnie and others in Ali's circle of friends take a different view, saying that while he is obviously very seriously ill, he continues to fight on sustained by medication, TLC and the global adulation of his fans.


Most days are spent propped up in a chair watching old movies and videos of his fights.

He barely recognises those around him but while the end is not believed to be imminent, it may not be far off.

Lennox Lewis, like Ali a former Olympic champion, is among those concerned over reports of his rapid deterioration.

"Seeing Ali as he is now is the greatest sadness of my life," sighs one of only three heavyweight champions in history to quit while still champion and stay retired, along with Gene Tunney and Rocky Marciano.

"Ali was more than my idol, he was my inspiration. I just wish we could all remember him as he was, a pioneer and the boxer who had it all. What he's done outside the ring – the bravery, the poise, the feeling, the sacrifice – he should get the Nobel Peace Prize for what he has achieved."

Another sad aspect is that when Ali goes he leaves behind no legacy for American heavyweight boxing, at either world or Olympic level. There is not one big American who has a hope of winning what once was regarded as the richest prize in sport or an Olympic gold medal.

It is seven years since an American (Hasim Rahman) last held an authoritative version of the world heavyweight title now dominated by Eastern Europe courtesy of the Klitschko brothers.


It is also almost 30 years since Tyrell Biggs became the last US Olympic heavyweight champion in Los Angeles. Biggs, like so many others who stood on the Olympic rostrum, never became a professional world champion.

Although immensely talented, his was a career blighted by alcohol and drug addiction.

The dearth of decent US heavyweights is the main reason the top American promoters Golden Boy have been wooing the new British Olympic champion Anthony Joshua.

However, Golden Boy may have a fight on their hands for Joshua, together with fellow Olympic gold medallist Luke Campbell he was hobnobbing at the York Hall ringside with promoter Eddie Hearn at Saturday's Prizefighter tournament won by, surprise surprise, dear old Audley Harrison.

The 41-year-old Harrison had last been seen poleaxed in 82 seconds by another fellow Olympic medallist, David Price, whose own burgeoning unbeaten career was brutally punctured by veteran Yank Tony Thompson the same night in Liverpool. Funny old game, boxing.

I believe Price will rise again but more significantly the current buzz is that if big Josh is to take the dosh and turn pro when his contract with GB's amateur set-up expires later this month it will be with Hearn's Matchroom organisation, with David Haye's guru Adam Booth schooling him.

There has not been a major heavyweight attraction in America since Mike Tyson.

While American heavyweights may be a disappearing breed but there is no shortage of talent in the lower weights.


Currently the best fighter around in any division is the flashily arrogant two-weight world champion Adrien Broner, who so ruthlessly despatched British lightweight Gavin Rees last week.

With a preening vanity allied to a brilliance that is a blend of Ali and Floyd Mayweather Jnr - the new "Cincinnati Kid", at 23 already a father-of-five, can sustain boxing for the next decade. Like Ali, he has a tongue as fast as his fists. Asked what is his best shot he smoothes his hair and replies: "When someone takes a picture of me."

With Olympic boxing in the US is such a parlous state you may wonder why Broner never made their team despite having had 300 amateur bouts.

The answer that his 2008 Olympic aspirations were scuppered when he served a year on remand accused of robbery and assault as a wayward teenager.

Now he confines his aggression to the ring.

Doubtless Ali will be reflecting ruefully on his nation's decline as an Olympic force as his sits in his farmhouse home at Paradise Valley in Michigan.

He will ponder more comfortingly on the day over half a century ago when as the 18-year-old Cassius Clay he won the Olympic light-heavyweight title in Rome, defeating Polish opponent Zbigniew Pietryskowsky in the final and showing early signs of the unique flamboyancy that was to become his trademark.

He was so proud of his gold medal that he didn't take it off for two days. Born on 17 January 1942, the younger of two brothers (Rudolph Valentino Clay was later to box as Rahman Ali) he was named after the 19th century slave abolitionist and politician, and brought up a Baptist. As a 12-year-old, Clay had taken up boxing on the advice of a white Louisville police officer, Joe Martin, after saying he wanted to "whup" the thief who had stolen his bicycle. He went on to win two National Golden gloves titles recording 100 wins and five losses.

In an early biography, he had claimed he threw his Olympic medal into the Ohio River in disgust after being refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant where was told: "We don't serve niggers." He is said to have responded:" "Well, I don't eat 'em, either."


He later admitted he actually lost the medal and was given a replacement during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics where his trembling hand lit the flame in one of the most emotional moments in the history of the Games.

The last time we saw him in public was here last year when, with his wife, a former nurse, guiding him, he haltingly assisted with the 2012 flag ceremony. For those of us who recall a rather different Ali shuffle, this was not a sight we wish to remember.

The previous occasion Ali had a such global audience and was as a member of the New York contingent which bid unsuccessfully in Singapore for the 2012 Olympics.

They took him along because of the impact he had made on three billion viewers when he lit the flame in Atlanta. But it proved a dreadful mistake. Ali had clearly deteriorated. His movements were painfully slow and robotic, his gaze blank, and unrecognising, save for the constant blinking of his eyelids.

The last time we had met was during a visit to London a few years earlier, when he received an award as the Sports Personality of the Century.

Ali always remembered your face, if not your name and he placed a trembling hand on my shoulder as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. "It ain't the same any more, is it?" "No champ," I replied, "It ain't."

Nor will it ever be once The Greatest is gone.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and big fights from Atlanta to Zaire

I have a lot to be thankful to the sport of athletics for.

As a former athlete I spent many enjoyable years training for and competing in the sport. Later I became a coach and was fortunate to work with many talented athletes. I have made friendships which have endured the years and the miles, I have seen more of the world than I could ever have dreamed of and I learned much about myself as a person.

Athletics gave me a base from which I worked in a number of other sports with many fantastic individuals and great teams. Other than my parents, the sport of track and field athletics contributed more to my being the person I am today than anything else. I am grateful, extremely grateful.

Why do I share this with you?

Wow! What an unforgettable week we've had in Brasov, Romania, for the 11th edition of the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival.

The London 2012 Olympic Games aimed to inspire a generation and from what I have seen from the performances of our athletes here this week that it certainly evident.

The 17-strong Team GB squad really got a feel for what the Olympics could be like from the word go. Arriving at the hotel prior to their departure to Brasov they received a fantastic bag of Team GB kit, attended workshops, and had their first official team meal as members of Team GB.

The environment the athletes have been a part of this week really has been reminiscent of the Olympic Games in every way possible including living in an Athletes' Village, being part of "One Team GB" and competing against athletes from different nations, cultures and alongside other sports.

Not only have they lived their lives this week through the Team GB "One Team GB" values but also importantly the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship.

Having made my way to see every Team GB member this week in action I'm so proud of the way they have conducted themselves on and off the field of play. It's been a privilege for me to be able to have one on one time with some of these athletes pre, during and post competition and help play a small part in their successes this week.

Team GB at the European Youth Winter Olympics in Brasov

For many of our athletes it is not only their first Team GB experience but also their first taste of an international competition. Whilst  I am sure that they would all have loved to have gone home with a medal in their pocket, what is more important is that they will be going home with a huge amount more experience and a new hunger to train harder and be very best that they can be.

Having spent time with Kat Thomson and her teammates prior to their competition I was ecstatic to see Kat fulfil her potential and win Team GB's first medal of the week when she claimed silver in the 500 metres speed skating. It was a fantastic boost to the whole team and I was touched to see how the whole team, across all the sports, came together to celebrate with her that evening when she collected her medal.

Now as we sit on the plane home I hope that all 17 Team GB athletes will look back on this week as a unique learning experience, something which has given them an insight into what it will take for them to achieve their goals as they aspire to be selected for Team GB once again -  for an Olympic Winter Games!

Amy Williams is the Olympic bob skeleton gold medallist and now a Team GB Ambassador

Although the main focus of the media earlier this month was on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board decision to recommend wrestling for removal from the Games, the ruling elite of the Olympic Movement made another key decision in Lausanne.

That decision was to shortlist just three bids for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

The bids were Buenos Aires, Glasgow and Medellín, with the two cities of Guadalajara and Rotterdam unceremoniously dropped due to the fact that both are struggling financially.

The decision came after the IOC Executive Board reviewed a report by the IOC Working Group, chaired by Germany's Claudia Bokel.

So what's next?

"An Evaluation Commission will now conduct further assessments of and hold video conferences with representatives from the three shortlisted Candidate Cities before submitting a report to the IOC members, who are scheduled to elect the host city at an Extraordinary Session in Lausanne on 4 July 2013," an IOC statement said.

Only two key dates remain.

The first is June 2013 (no specific day as yet) where the report by the IOC Evaluation Commission will be published before that all-important day on July 4, when the winner is announced.

The Youth Olympics itself still does not have the full backing of every IOC member but it will perhaps be the most tangible legacy of current IOC President Jacques Rogge, who will step down later this year.

Rogge is not a man known for his constant smiling but never have I found him more happy or approachable than at the first summer and winter editions of the Youth Olympic Games at Singapore 2010 and Innsbruck 2012 respectively.

In fact, the vast majority of IOC members seem to enjoy the relaxed, upbeat atmosphere created by the Games after two successful outings. Next up is Nanjing in 2014 before a Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer in 2016. But where the third Summer Youth Olympics go could truly help define the event.

The three remaining candidates all present strong but very different options.

First up is Buenos Aires, who are said to be eyeing the event as a way to tee up a bid for the full Olympic and Paralympic Games.

They are marketing their bid as a way to help spread the Olympic Movement across South America, tying it in with the fact that nearby Rio is staging the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.

They are being spearheaded by Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) President Gerardo Werthein, who is of the rising figures in the IOC.

"Buenos Aires and Argentina are ready to host the Youth Olympic Games in 2018," he says. "The Olympic Movement can trust Buenos Aires to deliver a truly wonderful Youth Olympic Games that will make the sporting world proud of this new international celebration of sport and culture."

Next up is Glasgow, looking to build on the magnificent London 2012 and the upcoming 2014 Commonwealth Games in the Scottish city itself. Technically, this is the strongest bid of the three given that all the facilities will pretty much be in place due to the Commonwealth Games.

But their trump card will be the fact that London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe is now heading the bid, due to the fact he has become British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman.

Coe's standing in the IOC could not be higher right now after he delivered arguably their greatest ever Games last year. The entire IOC owe him a debt of gratitude and Coe standing on the stage in Lausanne this July will no doubt bring back found memories of the way he helped London win their 2012 bid when he took to the stage in Singapore in 2005.

"It is an honour to have Glasgow shortlisted to host the YOG in 2018," said Coe. London 2012 inspired young people like never before and there is now a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the UK to take the next step on the Olympic journey to empower young people globally."

Powerful messaging indeed; and given that the Glasgow 2018 bid will be armed with another heavyweight in the form of Scotland's IOC vice-president Sir Craig Reedie, the city can be forgiven for being quietly confident.

Last up is Medellín, who were for so long the dark horses in this race but who now must be respected and even feared by the two more established sporting cities.

The second largest city in Colombia hopes that staging the Games will showcase its remarkable renaissance.

Once the centre of the country's drugs trade, the Medellín Cartel was at the height of its operation making $60 million (£39 million/€45 million) a day exporting illegal substances around the world. But in the last 20 years the city has undergone a miraculous transformation, dubbed the "Medellín Miracle" and this year has been as announced as the Latin-American Capital City in Innovation due to their recent advances on politics, education and social development.

"This is a wonderful experience, and a dream that Colombia has had for several years," stated Andres Botero Phillipsbourne, Colombia's Sports Minister, who is also a member of the IOC.

"Medellín is now on the global sporting map. We know that our capabilities are equal to other major cities. We expect a serious campaign from Glasgow and Buenos Aires and we are committed to show that Medellín is the perfect place to bring the Youth Olympics."

In this, the year of the Olympic elections, rumours are already rife that block votes are being traded in favour of votes for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics and the IOC Presidency later this year.

What that leaves is the strongest Youth Olympic bid race ever, and perhaps the toughest of all the IOC election races to pick this year.

The fact of the matter is that all three have great credentials and could all stage fantastic events.

And that what makes this race so wonderfully compelling.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. Follow him on Twitter.

Talk about Wrestlemania

The decision to throw out one of the original Olympic sports from the core programme of the Games has sparked off an unprecedented free-for-all which has also brought about the unlikeliest - and some might say  unholiest - of coalitions on a united battlefronts.

Can you believe it? We have Russia, the United States and Iran joining forces to declare war on the International Olympic Committee.

All are influential wresting nations mightily peeved that they are in danger of being jocked off the 2020 Games.

The Cold War may be long gone but who could visualise the Russian President Vladimr Putin, better known for throwing his weight around on the judo mat, making up a tag with the former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who himself had an 11-year career as a wrestler, in an attempting to put the arm lock on Jacques Rogge?

Moreover they have Iran as an ally egging them on, supported by calls for the Indian and Turkish Prime Ministers to join this remarkable grip-and-grapple protest movement.

Iran, where the US team are currently competing, said this week it is looking to join wrestling's major powers to overturn the IOC decision. Iran won three wrestling medals at the London Olympics, the U.S. took four,  and Russia was top nation with 11,including four golds.

Whether this astonishing alliance can register three falls or a submission over the IOC now depends on  the outcome of the IOC  Executive Board meeting which takes place at SportAccord in St Petersburg from May 29 until 31.

There they will have to throw their hat into the ring with the seven other sports - baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, squash, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu - currently bidding for inclusion on the 2020 programme, in making presentations to the IOC.

Following this the Board will recommend three sports on which the membership can vote on in Buenos Aires in September.

Wrestling's prospects are not looking healthy but some big guns are being fired on its behalf.

Backed by their respective National Olympic Comittees Russia and the US are already hitting a few targets.

Putin has immediately flexed his renowned muscles by helping set up the new International Wrestling Committee to co-ordinate a campaign which has forced the resignation of Rafael Merttinetti, the long-time Swiss head of FILA (International Association of Wrestling Styles).


And in the US 80-year-old Rumsfeld has written a strongly-worded open letter to the IOC published in the Washington Post. He declares: "Wrestling is unlike any other athletic activity...and to abandon this great Olympic legacy would be a tragedy for the sport and for the proud tradition of the Olympic Games. The IOC has been overcome by 'kumbaya' thinking and should restore wrestling to the 2020 line-up."

I'm not sure quite what he meanss by "kumbaya" though obviously it isn't complimentary.

But I'm equally sure Rumsfeld knows what he is talking about because he was a wrestling champion at Princeton University who tried unsuccessfully to make the US Olympic squad in 1956.

Rumsfeld noted that wrestling "once was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln's" and that he was not then only wrestling US President. Other grapplers who made it to the White House include George Washington (school champ at the Reg. James Maury's Academy in Fredricksburg, Virginia),  Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, who "mastered a wicked move called the Flying Marc that savagely flipped an opponent to the ground."

Bill Clinton was also partial to an spot of White House wrestling (of the horizontal variety, so we're told) while George W Bush simply mangled his words.

Actually, Rumsfeld makes the sport sound more exciting than it is.

It is hard to argue that it is not the most boring sport in the Olympics, but this does not mean it should be booted out.

It is one of the very foundations of the Olympic movement, both ancient and modern, dating back to 704 BC.

Ironically it was part of the original pentathlon, the modern version of which was was favourite for the proposed chop when the Executive Board met in Lausanne recently.

However a fiercely-argued case by Juan Antonio Samaranch, a vice-president of the international federation, allied to media pressure, apparently helped save it.

In fact we hear that a piece I wrote for insidethegames suggesting it would be an insult to throw Baron de Coubertin's baby out with the bath water received wide circulation among IOC members and,  according to Martin Dawe, vice-chair of Modern Pentathlon GB caused  "a flurry of activity worldwide."

I also hear that the scandal around British Wrestling's policy of recruiting "Plastic Brits"- and they were lt alone internationally in playing fast and loose with passports of convenience this respect - did not help wrestling's cause.


What might influence the IOC now is the fact that the sport has brought arch foes America and Iran in the common cause of salvation, with Russia on their side.

Something the United Nations can only dream of.

Knowing Rogge's passion for achieving such international unity, wrestling's cause may not be lost.

What is surprising, however, is that we've had barely a peep from the Greeks or the Romans. After all, they famously lent their names to one of the sport's two disciplines, though I doubt there are many outside the wrestling community who know the difference between Greco-Roman and freestyle.

I didn't until it was explained to me by my friend and fellow veteran Olympic scribe John Goodbody, of the Sunday Times, one of the few wrestling experts in this country.

It's simple. In Greco-Roman holds are barred below the waist.

But it is now no holds barred as the super-powers fight for wrestling to have an Olympic life after Rio 2016.


The sport has produced some renowned Olympic figures, among them the massive Russian Aleksandr Karelin, unbeaten as a Greco-Roman super-heavyweight from 1987-2000.

However I tend to agree with Goodbody that the uncertain future of sports like wrestling could be avoided if the IOC changed its Charter and moved some indoor contact sports (eg wrestling, boxing  judo, and taekwondo) to the Winter Games schedule.

Not only would this lighten an overloaded Summer Games programme but add televisual interest a Winter Games which are a turn-off for those nations who don't spend half their year skiing down mountains.

So, instead of giving wrestling a mat finish perhaps this is one idea the IOC could get to grips with.

And to liven things up maybe they could throw in some sumo.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and big fights from Atlanta to Zaire

I'm not entirely sure what to write about Oscar Pistorius, someone I have always liked and who continually greeted me with a warm hug following our first meeting three years ago.

In a phone call earlier today with International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Sir Philip Craven, he told me that his personal reaction was one of "total shock and disbelief" on Valentine's Day when he found out that the South African had allegedly murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

I guess my personal feeling on that February 14 morning was pretty similar, when news reports began broadcasting that the 26-year-old athlete had shot Steenkamp four times with a nine millimetre pistol at his high-security home in Silver Lakes complex in Pretoria, the country's capital.

As the rolling news coverage started to reveal more and more shocking details of the tragic incident, I vividly recalled my numerous meetings with Pistorius.


That first one came in Manchester three years ago, on the eve of the BT Paralympic World Cup in the city where Pistorius was the headline attraction, as he usually was wherever he competed.

The Blade Runner had always been someone who had fascinated me since I first saw him on television at the Paralympics in Athens six years earlier, and I told him that it was a genuine honour to meet him.

He smiled, thanked me, and I had about an hour's one-on-one interview with him later that day, during which time we covered a variety of topics. Back then, he wasn't quite the global superstar he was by London 2012, but he was still pretty big, and he had a stock answers for most of my questions.

Only when I asked him about fame, did his interview guard drop a little.

"It is difficult," he said, his eyes more focused on me than before. "I'm about your age, but everything I do is always all over the news. It gets hard, but it comes with the territory I guess."

We spoke for a while after the interview had finished and, even with London 2012 looming, he talked passionately about competing at Rio 2016, where he said he felt he would be at his peak.

A couple of days later, after he had easily won his two races at the Paralympic World Cup, he asked if he could lean on my shoulder while talking to the media in the mixed zone.

This wasn't to be the last occasion I would perform this role for him, because it turned out he can't stand still on his running "blade" legs due to their shape, so he always has to lean on something or somebody.

The next time we met was at the 2011 IPC World Athletics Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I met him on the training track for an interview and received a warm hug. He said he needed an ice bath before our interview and asked if I wanted to come and watch - as he would be wearing shorts! I politely declined and he laughed, saying that he would come and find me afterwards.

He kept his promise and on a sunny day, we sat in the stands and talked for hours about his Olympic and Paralympics dreams.

It was then that I finally asked for a picture with him. I explained that I was too star-struck the first time we met in Manchester and he smiled. "I'm still very flattered whenever people want a picture with me," he replied, posing next to me with his thumb up.

We spoke a lot at those Championships and at numerous events that followed it. I was always flattered that, despite his growing global stature, he never forgot my face or name.

The last proper conversation I had with him was at the Global Sports Forum in Barcelona nearly a year ago. He came over to me at lunch and I commented on how much leaner he looked than when I had last seen him. He explained it was because he had cut down on sprint training and was doing more work for the 400 metres in his bid to qualify for the Olympics.

I parted company with him that day by wishing him luck in his Olympic quest, and I was delighted to later see him make the South African Olympic team, and to be able watch him in person at both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Despite watching almost all of his races at London 2012 from the media stand in the Olympic Stadium, I didn't speak to him much at the Games. In fact,only once did I manage to snatch a brief word with him.

On that occasion, we shock hands and said hello following a press conference at the Main Media Centre but it was a short chat. He was being mobbed by journalists at the time so I simply congratulated him on making the Olympics. He thanked me, saying that he hoped to speak to me properly in the near future. I'm sad that won't happen now - at least not for a while, it seems.

A few days later Pistorius lost out to Brazil's Alan Oliveira in the 200m T44 final and used a post-race television interview with Channel 4 to claim he had only been beaten because of the length of his rival's blades. It showed an edge to Pistorius that few people had seen before, and I believe it was poorly managed by his PR team.

Much has been read into that incident since Steenkamp's death. But let's face it, it wasn't exactly an obvious precursor to the terrible incident in Pretoria, where the life of a beautiful and clearly talented young woman was unforgivably cut short.

Kelly Holmes may have bid farewell to one of her ground-breaking projects encouraging young sportsmen and women - the On Camp With Kelly scheme which came to an end in 2012 after providing eight years of support for up-and-coming distance runners - but she will clearly never say goodbye to offering her experience and enthusiasm to the next generation.

Dame Kelly's latest commitment in this sphere occurred earlier this month as she was involved in a two-day residential course for the Rising Stars who are part of the Jaguar Academy of Sport, which began its 2013 with a bespoke Mentoring and Education Programme (MEP), delivered by Kelly Holmes Education.

The 2012 Rising Stars and their guests, who included parents, carers and coaches, were invited to the University of Warwick for workshops which focused on coping with injury and planning for success, with the added inspiration of listening to words of advice from three outstanding British sporting performers.

Working alongside Dame Kelly - who is a Patron of the Jaguar Academy along with David Beckham, Sir Ian Botham, Sir Steve Redgrave, Gareth Edwards and  Denise Lewis - were Ambassadors David Roberts, with 11 Paralympic swimming titles to his name, and Mark Foster, who has won six world titles in the pool.

The two-day session saw Rising Stars take part in circuit training with Dame Kelly and consider the mental and physical aspects of coping with injury as well as a goal-setting workshop.


"It was great to talk to the Academy's Rising Stars again and share their experiences good and bad in the early stages of their sporting careers," said Dame Kelly. "After 2012 being such a memorable year for British sport, we hope to build on the amazing inspiration that touched every young athlete and provide a high quality education and mentoring experience.

"I feel so passionately about the benefits of mentoring and education to long term performance and learning as an athlete, which is why I'm delighted to run the unique mentoring and education programme with my team on behalf of the Academy.


"There has been a real buzz around the Rising Stars and support team during the workshops; hopefully they have all taken away some valuable lessons to keep working towards their goals."

The one-to-one mentoring programme for the five Special Recognition Award winners named at the Annual Awards in December was also confirmed, which meant that Jack Walker will be guided by David Flatman, the former international and Bath rugby player, Samuel Ibbotson will work with Anna Hemmings, the six-times world champion canoeist, Sophie Pyatt will be partnered by Adam Whitehead,  European and Commonwealth swimming champion, William Deary will work with Bryan Steel, two times an Olympic cycling medallist, and tennis player Joshua Ward-Hibbert will be partnered with Sarah Winckless, Olympic bronze medallist and double world champion.

Walker, from Settle, has just been selected for the first time by England Under-18s for the game against Scotland on March 3.

Talking at the Rising Stars Residential he said: "The workshops have been fantastic and once again very insightful. I was delighted to be named a Special Recognition Winner in December at the Annual Awards and I'm really looking forward to meeting up with muy mentor David Flatman very soon."

Amy Willmott, a young dressage rider from Carshalton, Surrey, commented: "The Bursary from the Jaguar Academy of Sport has made a huge difference to my sporting career already. The financial boost plus the fantastic mentoring and education programme has given me so much information to apply to my training and competitions.


"Over the last year, the bursary has enabled me to move up from restricted to open level competition which has been a big jump, and now I'm preparing for the Paralympic level of competition.

"I have taken so much from the psychology elements of the programme, as I need to develop a trusting relationship with my horse. The input of athletes like Kelly Holmes and David Roberts, has given me real confidence with my physical training and development."

Another Rising Star going places is 16-year-old wrestler George Ramm, from Bolton, whose sights are now set on the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after earning a silver medal at last month's Australian Youth Olympic Festival last month.

"Over the Mentoring and Education Programme, I have learned how to really look after myself as an athlete and the real highlight has been meeting all the sports stars like David Beckham, Sir Steve Redgrave and Dame Kelly Holmes," said Ramm.

"I was only targeting a top six placing at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, so taking silver is certainly my biggest achievement to date. I have decided with my coach to now move up to senior level, which is a big jump. But I feel I'm ready.

"My training now is geared towards the Commonwealth Games after the Senior British Championships this October, so it is an important 18 months for me in my progression."

Another Jaguar Academy of Sport Rising Star, boxer Crystal Barker from Salford. is hoping to emulate the achievements of Olympic champion Nicola Adams last summer after taking the European Junior title last November.

"I've really enjoyed the workshops and definitely learnt a lot," she said. "I really hope I don't get injured in my sporting career but the likelihood is that I will at some point. To hear now what has happened to successful athletes and how they've coped is great to give you the tools to overcome any setbacks. It really does prepare you for what might come, but I'm working hard for the World Championships in May and now enjoying training with the GB squad in Sheffield every other weekend."

The Jaguar Academy of Sport aims to recognise, celebrate and inspire the very best of British sporting talent and success. This is fulfilled through a Bursary Fund and the Mentoring and Education Programme delivered by Kelly Holmes Education.

The programme is a collection of themed Talent Days and Workshops which support the Rising Stars to overcome a number of obstacles they may encounter during their sporting career.


The topics covered include: external influences on performance, presenting yourself to sponsors, looking after your body for life, being world-class, financial and fife planning, building a successful team and celebrating success.

The programme is an integral part of the Academy's success and provides the 50 Rising Stars each year with invaluable non-financial support to enhance their overall development and learning, helping them on their journey to fulfilling their sporting dreams. Rising Stars work with the Academy's Patrons and Ambassadors through tailored Workshops and Talent Days, which are delivered by experts in their fields.

The support the Jaguar Academy of Sport has provided has made a tangible difference to the Rising Stars development pathway, with 33 per cent of the 2010 Rising Stars and 30 per cent of 2011 Rising Stars moving on to Talent Development Pathway Funding. The Jaguar Academy of Sport has received a highly commended status from the Marketing Society Awards 2012 for the work it is doing to support the next generation of British sporting talent.

To be eligible for the Jaguar Academy of Sport Bursary Fund, any young athlete, both able-bodied and those with a disability, has to be nominated to SportsAid for financial support by their sports own national governing body (NGB).

The Academy's Ambassadors include Colin Jackson, Jamie Baulch, Jessica Ennis, Sir Chris Hoy, Rio Ferdinand, Mark Foster, David Roberts and Jonny Wilkinson.

Members include A.P. McCoy, Sam Warburton, Sally Gunnell and Mo Farah.

All in all, it is an impressive effort in the cause of helping young sportsmen and women to emulate successes already achieved within the international sporting arena.

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. To follow him on Twitter click here. 

When it comes to straight-talkers Australia's John Fahey, the President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), is right up there with the best.

This is somewhat surprising, not just because the 68-year-old currently holds one of the most important and influential positions in world sport, but because he is most notable as a politician, having previously served as the Premier of New South Wales and Federal Minister for Finance in Australia.

Personally, I have always found Fahey particularly easy to get along with and someone with a good sense of humour.

As we sat down on the side-lines of the 2013 WADA Media Symposium this week, which took place in the plush surroundings at the Sofitel at London Heathrow Airport, I found myself engrossed with Fahey in a conversation about Manchester United.

He explained that he supported them ever since he read about the 1958 Munich air disaster when the legendary "Busby Babes" team crashed, with 23 fatalities.

"We didn't have a television back then but I read about it in the newspaper my dad bought," Fahey told me. "It was big news even in Australia back then and I loved the way Manchester United rose from the ashes to become great again. I've loved them ever since."

Genuinely fascinating though that conversation was, I had to redirect Fahey to the pressing issue of cycling's major drug problems that have caused continuous international headlines in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal.

At the centre of the issue seems to be the deteriorating relationship between WADA and the International Cycling Union (UCI), with the latter continually fail to properly address the doping issue, it is claimed.

They scrapped their own Independent Commission and, although Fahey would be happy for WADA to conduct the investigation, he is not confident the UCI will expose themselves to such scrutiny. In the middle of all this, seems to be a row between Fahey and UCI President Pat McQuaid, who the WADA President appears to be rather unimpressed with.

"Look, the last I spoke to Pat McQuaid was three Saturdays ago," Fahey said. "He told me, in the media mind, that he was going to call me. This was basically so he was able to say to his own inquiry that he made contact with the President of WADA (Fahey rolls his eyes at this point).

"We had a full and frank discussion.

"I conveyed the matters that I believed were the way forward in writing straight after that conversation and I got my response, again through the media, a few days later. We haven't spoken since then. But at the end of our conversation, I told him he had a great sport and regardless of my view on the way cycling has behaved and ignored WADA in the current crisis, I'm still happy to see if we could be of some assistance.

"I'd like his sport to succeed, not crash, but he's got to be prepared to allow scrutiny and open the doors to let the sunlight in. So if he wants to pick up the phone tomorrow, he'll get courtesy from me. I believe in what can happen tomorrow, not in what someone did wrong yesterday."

Throughout the UCI's media statements, the WADA President has only hit back once in a high-profile press release where he called McQuaid "deceitful" in the way he had suggested WADA were involved in the process of establishing then disbanding the Independent Commission.

Fahey explains he had to act then, but has otherwise stood by and allowed the UCI to continue saying what they like.

"I've only made one statement in the media and there was no choice there because he made a very deceitful response to the media and responded to my letter in a press release," he said.

"I just made it clear exactly what I had actually said. He made other provocative statements again in the media last week but as far as I am concerned, those statements are not important enough to me to even bother commenting on in the media again.

"I'm more concerned with effective anti-doping programmes around the world than the personalities at the UCI. They have their own problems that only cycling can solve."

Fahey's words to me seemed to mark the entire theme of the 2013 WADA Media Symposium in that it has been a tough year for the world of anti-doping. The Armstrong fallout has truly rocked the world of sport and the WADA President believes that the war on drug cheats will never be won for good.
"We need to be ever alert to the increasingly sophisticated science available to athletes today and the growing influence of the underworld," he said, becoming more general in his words.

A generation ago you could not be sure you had "arrived" in British public life until Spitting Image had gone to the trouble of making and broadcasting your puppet effigy.

In today's more democratic media age, the best public figures can hope for is a spoof Twitter account.

So the fact that Andy Hunt is the first chief executive in the long and distinguished history of the British Olympic Association (BOA) to be satirised in this way is, in some respects, a badge of honour.

I doubt that Hunt much cared for the excitable 140-character bulletins fired off by his digital alter ego Randy Shunt.

But actually, the relentlessly upbeat business jargon in which Shunt expressed himself, besides being an accurate enough parody to raise a smile, highlights an important quality that Hunt, who is leaving after four years, brought to the organisation at a key point in its history.


I suppose I would describe this as an unwavering but carefully-targeted sense of urgency.

Cocooned in its Wandsworth rabbit-warren, the BOA had made a perfectly good fist over many years of looking after British athletes at successive Olympic Games.

At Beijing in 2008, I would even describe its performance as excellent.

But London 2012 confronted it with a new challenge - a challenge it could not afford to fail.

This was to organise and service the biggest British team in living memory during the most important weeks of their sporting lives - and to do so under an unremitting, often nit-picking, media spotlight.

To succeed in this task as well as it did, the BOA first needed unquenchable self-belief.

But it also had to devise and implement a carefully-calibrated plan to upscale and then downsize in synch with the waxing and waning of its one-off, London 2012-related responsibilities.

The plan's calibration had to be all the more precise because of the organisation's drumskin-tight finances and the severity of the restrictions on ways it could augment income in an effort to cover inevitably increased costs.

The final verdict should await publication of the BOA's 2012 accounts.

But the fact that Hunt appears to have overseen this process while touching off no bigger crisis than a running gag about Team GB scarves, in spite of all manner of political noises-off in the background, is very much to his credit.


I have no doubt that Hunt was genuinely surprised by the extent to which his freedom of commercial manoeuvre was circumscribed.

Hence that colourful description of the Joint Marketing Programme Agreement with the  London 2012 organising committee which made it sound like a cross between a Harry Houdini act and a high security prison.

But he proved exceptionally tenacious in identifying and executing other money-raising strategems.

And he did not let his frustrations on this score cloud his organisational judgement.

When I spoke to him this week, Hunt characterised the core function of his management career as trying to "professionalise organisations".

The branch of the BOA's operations upon which I am best qualified to pass judgement is the communications and media arm.

This, I can tell you, has been thoroughly transformed over the past three or four years, and very much for the better.

We still talk a lot about legacy in the Olympic Movement.

You could say, though, that Hunt would have done the best job if his legacy was absolutely nothing - if the BOA went back to the way it was - and the size it was - before it had to rise to its once-in-a-lifetime task of chaperoning unwonted squadrons of footballers, handballers and even a lone freestyle wrestler, at a UK-hosted Games.

I don't believe this will be altogether the case, however.

While I wonder how long the organisation will stay at its swish, largely open-plan Charlotte Street base, well-suited as it was to the media hotbed of London 2012, I think the business-like, bottom-line-oriented drive that Hunt instilled will linger a while yet.


Frankly, the BOA cannot afford for it to be otherwise.

So farewell then Andy Hunt.

You weren't everyone's cup of tea, I think it is fair to say, and the strange, sometimes petty, ways of the sports business appeared, especially in the early days, to exasperate you.

But some of the feathers you ruffled needed ruffling and, when all is said and done, the financially fragile body you have been managing has staggered through a challenge that might have overwhelmed it, while fulfilling the tasks required of it with as much distinction as the other main cogs in the slickly-oiled London 2012 machine.

Keith's mum wishes you well.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed by clicking here.