Earlier this week in Lausanne, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced the names of the 29 athletes who will compete in Tokyo on the Refugee Olympic Team.

It was always my intention to sit down and write a book about the stories behind the stories of my days in the newspaper business. I wanted to call it "the funny side of the street" - the street being Fleet Street, that is.

I seem to have spent most of my adult life watching Didier Deschamps win football trophies.

It’s the bit in F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night where Dick Diver, trying to impress the younger crowd with his old trick of raising himself on a board tied behind a motorboat with a man on his shoulders, so nearly manages it, and tries again, and a final time, as accomplishment evades him.

Just over eight years ago, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) introduced a new discipline to the world of sport - and one that could yet hold the key to generating mass interest and injecting much-needed money into the organisation.

With campuses having known long shutdowns, the pandemic has had a severe impact on university life and university sport. Despite this, however, the future for international university sport looks bright. From the inspiration of indoor athletes during the first lockdowns to the studies noting decreased activity in our children, the pandemic has also highlighted the importance of sport and physical activity in the very fabric of our society. It has reminded us of the need to always strive towards a healthier and more active society for the future.

In a exactly week’s time, Turkey and Italy are set to finally begin the 60th anniversary European Football Championship in Rome.

The emergence of the global pandemic in 2020 - that has continued into this year - has created massive challenges for sports organisations at both a national and international level. Leaders of sports organisations must now, more than ever, be able to navigate change, uncertainty, and complexity while often feeling stuck and overwhelmed.

"Makes you proud to be English!" exclaimed a fellow viewer leaping off the sofa to high five Chelsea’s victory over Manchester City in what was labelled the all-English Champions League final in Porto last weekend.

Yesterday was a public holiday in the United Kingdom; I doubt though that it will have worked out that way for many sports reporters.

The knee-jerk reaction, as media, to Naomi Osaka’s current unwillingness to commune with the press at the French Open tennis tournament is to say: "Typical diva."

Last month marked the 10th anniversary since the Lee Valley White Water Centre officially opened to the general population, the only venue built for the London 2012 Olympics to have public use prior to the Games.

I am so stoked to be here in El Salvador for the start of the 2021 Surf City El Salvador International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games (WSG) and I can’t wait to watch the world’s best surfers chasing Olympic dreams and competing for coveted gold medals.

The last time Manchester City faced Chelsea in European competition, Pep Guardiola was only three months old and Thomas Tuchel wasn't even born.