Has anyone else become as frustrated as me with ludicrous claims that the United States should boycott this year's Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang?

World Taekwondo announced the creation of the Grand Slam Champions Series in June with the aim of professionalising and upgrading the sport's commercial appeal and media profile.

Such a shame that so far Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un have showed no inclination to attend the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month.

I remember in France in the 1980s being asked whether it could possibly be true that there was a British radio soap opera that had been running for 30 years.

I’ve never much liked New Year celebrations.  They remind me of the Peggy Lee song, Is That All There Is? “Then let’s keep dancing, let’s break out the booze, and have a ball…”

I found myself re-reading a somewhat over-ambitious article I wrote almost exactly two years ago looking ahead to some expected and hoped-for Olympic developments in 2016. A few, such as a strong Paris 2024 bid, were realised while most others occurred belatedly or not at all. This inspired an urge to compile a similar list on the first day of what should be a quieter year on the administrative front in 2018, but probably won’t be.

The year appears to be concluding in fitting fashion, with an ongoing war of words over Russian participation at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

A common moral dilemma I find myself having from time to time is the extent and limits to which I am willing the teams and athletes I support to go to in order to win.

It has taken rather more than 80 days but Jules Verne and his literary creations Phileas Fogg and indomitable assistant Passepartout would surely have approved mightily of the epic journey of the Queen’s Baton (QBR) to Australia.

It’s axiomatic that sport requires an element of doubt, a measure of uncertainty, to be compelling. Nobody wants to watch a foregone conclusion.

With Buenos Aires' big Olympic Moment fast approaching, it is fitting that Argentina's Gerardo Werthein should retain his status as top International Olympic Committee (IOC) Tweeter for a second year.

The punch-perfect performance from Billy Joe Saunders, arguably the best by a Brit this year, in successfully defending his WBO world middleweight title against David Lemieux in Montreal recently was certainly the most compelling and complete victory by a Brit since Tyson Fury toyed with Wladimir Klitschko back in 2015.

The last 12 months in sports politics has perhaps not quite hit the heights of the year which preceded it, but it has contained plenty of excitement nonetheless. 

There is a moment annually when on a generally dark and dreary day in the build-up to Christmas and the New Year, either myself or my Dad will utter the words "Do you remember that cross-country in Stebbing?"