A group dedicated to preserving Dutch heritage has lost a court battle to have a controversial statue of an athlete with his right arm raised returned to its pedestal at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.

A controversial statue of an athlete with his right arm raised has been removed from its pedestal at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam due to its connotation with fascism.

The 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam saw a number of important milestones, but one we still all benefit from today is revolutionising car parking. Like other cities around Europe in the late 1920s, the streets of Amsterdam were filling up fast with cars, and during the Games this issue was more pressing than ever, so organisers were forced to rack their brains in search of a solution. The allotted parking area next to the Olympic Stadium had room for a maximum of 2,000 vehicles, nowhere near enough to meet the demand during Games time. In response, the City Council provided a number of other sites that took parking capacity up to 3,500 vehicles and 2,000 bicycles. However, no sooner had one problem been solved than another was created: how were drivers and cyclists supposed to find their way to the new car parks? A solution was found in the shape of small blue panels with a white capital "P" in the middle. So it was that the international traffic sign for parking was born.

A statue of an athlete with his right arm raised is set to be removed from its pedestal at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam due to its connotation with fascism.

The first Olympic medals won by a British black athlete sold at auction today for £8,000 ($10,300/€9,300) - nearly three times their original estimate.

A film crew from Uruguay was in Europe last week, working on the last few interviews for a three-part documentary about the origin of football in that country.

A new Olympic medal was distributed to winners at Athens 2004, replacing a long-standing one by Giuseppe Cassioli, an Italian who had designed the medals for Amsterdam 1928 with the Greek goddess Nike shown on the medals, seated on a chariot with a wreath in one hand and an ear of corn in the other, symbolically honoring winning athletes. Next to Nike was usually a stadium that looked a lot like a Roman amphitheatre. The error was finally corrected 76 years later when Elena Votsi, a Greek artist, was chosen to design the medals when the Games returned to Athens. Votsi's design had a winged, almost angelic Nike boldly swooshing down feet-first from the heavens, delivering the laurel in the Panathenaic Stadium, the all-marble venue for archery and the finish line of the marathon at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. Her Nike is based on a marble statue by the sculptor Paionios of Chalkidiki from 421 B.C. In the background of the medal is the Acropolis, a design that has remained for subsequent Games.