If I had to make a judgement, I would say the London Marathon has probably been the most beautiful event I have ever covered as a sports writer (certain West Ham United victories exempted, although of course as a member of the Fourth Estate I have always maintained a strictly neutral viewpoint here).

The reason being its almost unique blending of talent - at the front the finest marathon runners in the world, in the middle, respectable club athletes, at the back, people who have, perhaps, never previously regarded themselves as being capable of managing such a feat of endurance.

(I've run it once. On the day I wasn't thrilled with my time. But upon reflection I felt deeply grateful to have been a part of something so magnificent.)

Runners at Tower Bridge during last year's Virgin London Marathon - a glorious event
©Getty Images

I say "almost", because there are a regular series of events which rival the London Marathon for its range of abilities, and these take place on the Thames, following the reverse of the annual Boat Race course - that is, from Mortlake to Putney.

We are talking here of the annual Head of the River races involving Pairs, Fours and Eights. They too are glorious.

This weekend another gathering of scullers and sweep rowers is on the calendar as the Tideway hosts the 60th Head of the River Fours race, sponsored by Fuller's Brewery.

More than 1,600 athletes from across the UK, Europe and further afield will compete in quadruple sculls, coxed and coxless fours.

At the business end of the race there will be talents such as Olympic single sculls bronze medallist Alan Campbell, racing for Tideway Scullers, who won last year and will thus lead off this Saturday (November 1). The men's elite coxed four event includes a Leander crew featuring Olympic champions Pete Reed and Alex Gregory, and a Molesey crew including two of the crew which won world title for Britain in the fours this year, George Nash and Mo Sbihi.

A pressing sub-plot on the day will involve the men's and women's Oxford and Cambridge University crews, who will be cutely deployed in a number of fours ahead of their big day of April 11, where the women will row on the traditional course for the first time.

And at the other end? Well, I guess it will be a case of the usual hyper-organised overachievers making their mark.
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Racing at the Head of the River Eights in 2002 on the Mortlake to Putney course
©Getty Images

For many years, my interaction with rowing was interviewing athletes such as Steve Redgrave, Matt Pinsent, James Cracknell, Tim Foster and Greg Searle. But for the last six years I have covered the sport at a less rarified level. And discovered it is "oarsome".

Some years ago I decided to do a little feature at a Fours Head and interview a novice crew from Vesta Rowing Club which was starting from the back of the grid, as it were.

This crew's performance was such that they had risen 20 or so places in the rankings on the day. And as I spoke to the four of them - three of whom had been rowing for less than six months - I began to understand one of the basic truths about rowers: they're all a bit scary.

Scary, that is, in as much as they are all disciplined, committed, organised people, willing to work very hard and endure much pain for their goals and ambitions. And that physical excellence - evidenced in bodies that correspond very often to ideals of perfection - is very often a concomitant of professional excellence.

The Vesta four were of a professional calibre to make you feel unworthy. They were bankers, they were completing MPhils, PhDs. By and large, it's what rowers do.

The upside of this is that rowing constantly reminds one of the eternal truth of the ancient Roman axiom: mens sana in corpore sano.

The downside is, as previously mentioned, an inescapable feeling of inferiority among those who are, say, simply charged with reporting the events.

Pete Reed, pictured (right) with his former pairs partner Andy Triggs Hodge, is a double Olympic champion who will be involved in rowing's answer to the London Marathon
©Getty Images

Oh, and did I mention valour?

I am recalling now the members of an Army eight who spoke matter-of-factly about returning for a second or third time to a mysterious place called Eric. Upon investigation, it transpired that the place was not Eric, but Herrick - that is, Operation Herrick, the generic codename for the British Army's operation in Afghanistan.

No other sport has more consistently sent me away with a sense of being unworthy. But so what? No other sport has offered more inspiring examples of application and effort.

A couple of examples.

At the 2012 Head of the River Eights Race, the Cambridge lightweight crew, taking part in the event a week before they were due to compete in their Boat Race at Henley, included Matthew White, who had arrived at the University - to read medicine at Peterhouse - having, in his own phrase, let obesity get the better of him.

Having started at University weighing 107 kilograms, after two years of novice college rowing, this young man from Wakefield weighed 72.5kg, right on the lightweight limit, having lost nearly five-and-a-half stones.

"The training I did for college rowing meant I lost the weight," he added." Rowing has given me a healthy lifestyle, and it has also been a lot of fun."

After last year's Veteran Fours Head I spoke to the Broxbourne D quad crew in the Tideway Scullers bar as they waited for the results.

The Broxbourne four, which included Andy Kelly, a double masters world champion, had been buoyed by recent wins in the National Championships and at Henley as they targeted Walton D4x, category winners for two years running, who had finished 30 seconds clear last time round.

But as he sat with his crew-mates in the bar - drinking tea, it should be said - Quintin McKellar voiced a doubt: "I think that if we had won it we would all be absolutely shagged - and I don't think we are."

Sadly for Broxbourne, McKellar's intuition proved correct. Walton had won again,18min 04.7sec to 18:30.1.

Anna Watkins, pictured in 2012, the year she and Katherine Grainger won Olympic gold, has been a regular entrant to the Head of River races ©Getty Images

Two years earlier, at the Head of River Fours, some of Britain's most vaunted Olympians had taken a relatively rare opportunity to represent their clubs in what is the closest thing rowing has to the London Marathon.

The women's elite heavyweight quad win was won by a Leander crew comprising Olympic silver medallists Debbie Flood and Fran Houghton, double world champion Anna Watkins - who would win Olympic gold in the pair with Katherine Grainger the following year - and Rachel Gamble-Flint.

A wide welcome has been given to the increased ban for serious first-time doping offences from two years to four years which will become effective on January 1, 2015, under the revised World Anti-Doping Code.

As the new Code states, this tougher ban will apply in cases where an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) is deemed to be intentional and "is meant to identify those athletes who cheat".

However, the net which will tighten on those who clearly set out to dope will also ensnare athletes who ignore the risk of doping, a threat which has not been clearly publicised either by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) or UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) in either of their recently published athlete guides to the new Code.

Under the current 2009 Code, which expires on December 31, an athlete who tests positive has a degree of wriggle room to argue for a reduced sanction by three avenues *(see footnote); by establishing that he bears no fault or negligence, no significant fault or negligence, or that the prohibited substance he ingested was not intended to enhance his sport performance.

This third avenue for a reduced sanction under the 2009 Code was restricted to certain substances classed by WADA as Specified Substances and has been the basis for anti-doping judicial bodies, including the Swiss based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), to reduce sanctions in many cases to a few months or as little as a reprimand. However, this specific avenue no longer exists under the 2015 Code with WADA attempting to clarify what has been a hotly contested issue.

Those familiar with doping adjudications will be aware of the two approaches to the issue which has caused considerable consternation in the anti-doping world in recent years, has exercised many top legal minds around the globe and been a persistent thorn in one of WADA's core principles, that of universal harmonisation.

These are heady days at Upton Park. West Ham fans are blowing bubbles again - but now they come from a bottle of vintage champagne.

Who would have thought that the club whose supporters wanted manager Sam Allardyce booted out at the end of last season would now be perched in the top four of the Premier League?

As they say: Funny old game football.

Because of the depressing way the Hammers were playing towards the end of last season, there were genuine fears among their followers that by the time they moved into the Olympic Stadium in 2016 the football fare on offer would be Championship, not Premiership.

Now it is no longer the nightmare of the Championship but a dream of the Champions' League.

Forget dreaded thoughts of welcoming Brentford or Bournemouth. Now they have Barcelona and Bayern in their sights. Perhaps...

West Ham are currently sitting in fourth place in the Premier League following a superb start to the season ©Getty Images



Certainly European football would be a welcome bonus for a stadium whose soaring costs are literally going through the roof with expensive work needed, mainly to strengthen that particular piece of construction, requiring an additional £36 million (£58 million/€46 million).

This takes the total expenditure on converting the stadium for football and athletics so far to £619 million ($1 billion/€785 million).

Much of this additional expense could have been offset had Sebastian Coe and co had listened to then sports minister Richard Caborn and planned the stadium as a multi-purpose unit, à la Stade de France, with retractable seating, when the Olympic bid was formulated.

It now emerges that contractors Balfour Beatty had encountered difficulties installing the complex roof that will cover the athletics track and the retractable seats that will be rolled into position during the football season.

Following negotiations with the contractor, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has agreed to pay Balfour Beatty an extra £35.9 million ($57.5 million/€45.5 million) on top of the £154 million ($247 million/€195 million) already agreed. The extra funding will not be paid for by either the Hammers or, we are assured, by the taxpayer. Instead it will come from an LLDC "contingency budget". How fortunate they had that, eh?

The stadium, originally designed to be reduced to a 25,000 capacity bowl after the Games, cost £429 million ($693 million/€543 million) to build in the first place. It is understood that the overall cost will rise still further because there are still a handful of smaller contracts still to be finalised.

The projected cost of converting the Olympic Stadium, shown in an artists impression, is expected to rise further over coming months ($304.3 million/€240.6 million) ©West Ham



The roof on the stadium, which West Ham will move into as primary tenants at the beginning of the 2016-17 season, is the largest of its kind in the world and requires construction techniques normally used to build oil rigs in the North Sea.

All of which makes it imperative that the stadium, the most significant tangible legacy of London 2012, is gainfully utilised.

For West Ham to move into it as a non-Premiership side be a national embarrassment.

Luckily their current change of fortune and apparently football philosophy have virtually eradicated that possibility, although next season is the crucial one irrespective of where they finish this campaign.

But the portents are favourable. West Ham are now playing with a panache (now that's a word I'd never have associated with Sam Allardyce) more reminiscent of their swinging sixties,when the great triumvirate of Moore, Hurst and Peters so beautifully bestrode the Boleyn ground under the stylish stewardship of Ron Greenwood.

Allardyce is no Greenwood but he seems to have got the message. Perversely fan power may have saved his job as I suspect the West Ham Board took cognisance of what the supporters were saying about his dour tactics and insisted he changed his up-and-under, long-ball ways.

These last few weeks have marked a remarkable switch in philospophy as Sam plays it again a different way, culminating in that 2-1 win over champions Manchester City on Saturday.

The cosmopolitan crop of players he brought in during the summer are responsible for West Ham's new and refreshingly adventurous approach.

Two of them, Diafra Sakho, whose injury on Saturday is a major blow, and Enner Valencia, form one of the most effective strike forces in the Premiership while Alex Song, on loan from Barcelona, now runs the show almost in the same imperious manner of the late, great Bobby Moore.

The West Ham team that will play in the Olympic Stadium will hope to emulate the great team of the 1960s and 1970s, led by England's 1966 World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore ©Getty Images



West Ham certainly seem to be getting it together, so much so that Big Sam has received praise from soccer's Caesar, Jose Mourinho, and even an impromptu kiss on the cheek from the terminally unloveable Russell Brand.

It is doubtful if the Olympic Stadium will be able to reproduce the atmosphere of the Boleyn, which will be sold to property developers the Galliard Group when the Hammers move.

But West Ham have fallen on their feet in securing an iconic venue for which they will contribute only £15 million ($24 million/€19 million) for a 99-year lease together with annual rent and a share of income as agreed with the LLDC and London Mayor Boris Johnson. Some bargain that.

What's more, they continue to make it abundantly clear there will be no ground-sharing with any other club, least of all Tottenham who need a temporary home for a season before their own new stadium is ready for 2018/19.

West Ham are at pains to point out that their right of veto is not just for one season as originally believed but actually for the duration of the entire year lease.

The renovated Olympic Stadium venue will have 54,000 seats and will also serve as the national competition stadium for athletics in the UK, hosting regional and international events, including the 2017 World Championships. Plus the odd pop concert.

As well as football, the London 2012 Olympic Stadium will host Rugby World Cup matches and the 2017 World Athletics Championships, and maybe the odd pop concert
©Getty Images



The venue in Stratford is also due to host five matches at next year's Rugby World Cup before becoming West Ham's permanent home.

But the danger is that it still will be under-used. So would it be an idea for some other major football fixtures to be held there?

Obviously the FA Cup is out of the equasion because of the agreement with Wembley, as are most England internationals, but what about the the Capital One (i.e. League) Cup and England Under 21 and women's international matches?

And might Frank Warren or Eddie Hearn be interested in staging the occasional blockbuster big fight there?

Meantime West Ham must keep those bubbles blowing and hope that, unlike in the lyrics, their dream does not "fade and die" before the end of next season.

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 Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

All but two of the questions after the conclusion of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting in the picturesque Swiss town of Montreux last week concerned Agenda 2020, the reform process currently dominating the Olympic Movement.

As so much has already been written about this, and will continue to be ahead of the Extraordinary IOC Session in Monte Carlo on December 8 and 9, I will focus on the subject tackled in those other two questions: the Board's decision to provisionally recognise Kosovo subject to rubber-stamping by the membership.

Unlike virtually every other issue tackled on these pages, I am far from neutral on the question of Kosovo.

On November 4 in Paris, on the aptly-named Avenue Pierre de Coubertin, results from a feasibility study into a possible Olympic and Paralympic bid will be presented by some of the great and the good of the French sports establishment.

The event, which I am content to report will be followed by a cocktail party, should give us a better sense of whether the French capital will throw its chapeau into the ring in the 2024 race for which the starting-pistol will be fired next year.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had better hope that the study has a favourable outcome.

With the recent withdrawal of Oslo meaning that the lacklustre 2022 contest is down to just two runners, Almaty and Beijing, the Olympic Movement badly needs a competitive field for 2024, which presumably will be the first race to take account of IOC President Thomas Bach's Agenda 2020 changes.

Unfortunately, as time passes, it is looking less and less clear where that competitive field is likely to come from.

It is important to say, though it would not cut much ice with mainstream media, that if the eventual 2024 line-up does once again have an underpowered look, it will be for very different reasons than those which have decimated the potential 2022 field. The Summer Games remains, in my opinion, a far stronger property than its Winter counterpart simply because it offers the country hosting it a genuinely global - and pretty much all-consuming - platform.

Oslo, along with Stockholm, Kraków and Lviv, have all withdrawn from a lacklustre 2022 Olympic race, but 2024 has more potential ©AFP/Getty Images



The incipient problem regarding 2024 is that one probable runner - the United States - is seen as so strong that other top-calibre candidates, chiefly in Europe and the Middle East, might opt to keep their powder dry until next time.

This is potentially a big deal for the IOC since not only does it risk producing another boring race, which it can ill afford, but it would almost certainly reduce Lausanne's bargaining power on commercial and organisational matters with the Games organisers.

So who, as it stands today, are the most likely runners?

No final decision has been taken, but I would think something serious would have to go awry at December's Extraordinary Session of the IOC in Monaco for the United States not now to give it another crack.

That means either Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington D.C. looks set to be on the starting-line, probably as favourite.

Whenever I have discussed this, the assumption seems to be that Los Angeles, Olympic host in 1932 and 1984, is most likely to emerge as the US candidate; while I have no inside knowledge of the selection process, I see little reason to dispute this.

Toronto and Mexico have both pulled the plug on the idea of making a bid.

With the Peruvian capital Lima bidding to stage the 2017 Session at which the 2024 host will be announced, the US candidate is likely to have a free run as far as the Americas are concerned - a far from negligible consideration; part of what torpedoed Chicago's bid for the 2016 Games at such an embarrassingly early stage of the voting process was the presence on the four-strong shortlist of another Western Hemisphere candidate, Rio de Janeiro, the eventual winner.

Only the United sates is likely to bid from the Americas, with 1984 host Los Angeles seen as the most likely contender ©Getty Images



With Tokyo set to stage the 2020 Games, there seems little point in Asian cities entering the 2024 race, unless as a dry run for future Olympiads.

And while significant Agenda 2020-inspired changes to the bidding process might help to encourage one or more African cities to present themselves, I have detected little sign of detailed plans being laid at this stage.

Durban, one of the likelier African candidates under normal circumstances, will have its hands full with its Commonwealth Games bid until at least next September, which is also when expressions of interest for 2024 are supposed to reach the IOC.

That leaves Europe and the Middle East.

Recent history suggests one should never discount them, but I would not be surprised to see Doha sit this one out, in light of tensions in the region and, more particularly, the 2022 World Cup project, which it will be under pressure to get absolutely right.

Dubai, the region's other main potential candidate, appeared to rule itself out of the running last year; and it too has another major project on the horizon, in the shape of the 2020 World Expo.

I have a hunch, though, it is one of those cities that might be prevailed upon to ride to the IOC's rescue should an underpopulated field appear in the offing come next summer.

Even if it, or Doha, would be seen as outsiders in the face of a well-managed US bid, it could use the 2024 race to position itself for 2028, when it would pose a big threat to even the most heavyweight European contenders.

Dubai has suggested it will not bid but should not be completely written off ©Getty Images






The most rational strategy for a serious European bidder, too, in my view, would be to make provision to bid both in 2024 and 2028.

The risk of sitting out 2024 is that, should the US once again mess up, as is well within the bounds of possibility, you might miss out on a good opportunity to snap up the prize; worse, one of your European rivals might end up as the beneficiary of US misfortune, in which case there would be little point in bidding for 2028 either.

Unfortunately, I doubt that this strategy would sit well with the political classes in several of the strongest potential European bidders, some of whom have already tasted the ashes of Olympic defeat and may be assumed to be particularly keen not to do so again.

Paris is one of those I would put in this category, and now that Prime Minister Manuel Valls has signalled Government backing for a French bid to host Expo 2025, I would not be surprised if the French capital decides ultimately to focus its efforts on 2028.

Istanbul, beaten by Tokyo for the 2020 Games, is another: with economic growth slowing and the appalling violence in Iraq and Syria alarmingly close at hand for Turkey, the likelihood of an Istanbul 2024 bid appears to me at the moment to be receding.

Rome surprised many with its abrupt withdrawal from the 2020 race and could certainly give a US bidder a run for its money in 2024.

However, European growth seems once again to be stalling, and it is hard to foresee enthusiastic support for the Olympics to return to the Italian capital while economic prospects are so uncertain.

You might expect German cities to be keen to help out their compatriot Thomas Bach as he endures what is turning into his first sticky spell as IOC President - and indeed I think Hamburg or Berlin are among the likelier 2024 bidders.

However, Munich was one of the European cities whose inhabitants voted against backing a bid for the 2022 Games.

Consequently, German sports leaders may be expected to proceed very cautiously.

Berlin host city of the 1936 Olympics is among the stronger European contenders, although Hamburg is also mounting a German bid ©Getty Images



Baku, a first phase casualty in the 2020 race, will I think bid.

One of the benefits of hosting next year's inaugural European Games is that it will enhance the organisational skills and experience of local Azerbaijanis.

Partly as a consequence, the city by the Caspian Sea should be capable of a very credible Olympic bid, though not one, I think, likely to upset a US candidate that is on its game.

Finally, while you might think that the recent sharp chill in relations between Vladimir Putin's Russia and the West would have snuffed out any prospect of St Petersburg winning the 2024 race, that does not, I think, mean that it definitely will not enter.

If he suspects a sub-standard contest, Putin might sense an opportunity perhaps to exploit any US weakness and certainly to position the city for a more sustained assault in 2028, when political power alliances may again have shifted.

And whatever residual problems this year's Sochi Winter Games in Russia might have left the IOC to deal with, they were run with undeniable efficiency.

So there you have it; I make that only two almost unquestioned bidders - the US and Azerbaijan - with Germany, Russia and the Gulf as strong possibles and France, Italy and Turkey, as well as conceivably an African city, more distant maybes.

Let's allow too for the fact that someone unsuspected often pops out of the woodwork.

In the best of all possible circumstances, that could still make for a compelling and vigorous race; more likely, it will just about pass muster.

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.

When I think of the phrase "Say it with flowers" I recall the old cartoon where that florists' slogan hangs in a window smashed by a football, and the kids responsible have used assorted blooms to spell out the message "Sorry" on the pavement in front of the shop.

Hilarious!

In ice skating, saying it with flowers has become as much a part of the sport as a triple salchow or the "Kiss and Cry" area over the last 30 years. Fans at ice arenas around the world have shown their appreciation of performances in ice skating or ice dance by hurling all manner of stuff, including flowers, onto the field of play.

If this was football they would probably be arrested - although to be fair, bottles and coins are not among the objects which regularly land ice in the wake of skating programmes, no matter how badly they have been carried out.

No. What you get nowadays if you are a skater of any note is flowers and teddy bears, although other gifts thrown from the gallery have included money, sweets and women's underwear.

A bouquet of flowers lie on the ice, a tribute to a skating performance at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. But who's going to pick them up then? ©Getty Images

Back in the day, it used to be in vogue to hurl red roses onto the ice at your skater of choice. But concerns were raised that bits of stem or petal would remain on the surface and represent a potential slipping point for subsequent performers.

This health-and-safety nightmare was nullified by a ruling that, if you wanted to throw flowers at a man or woman with metal blades on the bottom of their boots, those flowers had to be in the form of a bouquet. That is, wrapped in cellophane or similar. It was the "safe sex" imperative for floral tributes.

I recall watching Katerina Witt provoke a cascade of bouquets after her performance at the Hamar Ice Rink during the 1994 Winter Olympics Games in Norway. The German phenomenon, who was reported to have received 35,000 love letters after winning Olympic gold in 1988, was making a comeback which involved the latest in a long line of eye-catching costumes and oodles of poise and prowess.

Witt discovered however - as did Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at those same Lillehammer Games - that the event moves on technically in a way that makes it hard even for the most accomplished of Olympic champions to return to the heights of the sport.

The charismatic German skater had to settle for seventh place in the Hamar Arena – but she got a gold-medal number of bouquets flung onto the ice around her, even if none of the offerings appeared to match her most valuable previous thrown gift of a Rolex watch (suitably wrapped, one trusts).


Katarina Witt of Germany completing her free skate at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Before long, she was bombarded with bouquets ©AFP/Getty Images

While flowers remain a standard item of appreciation, in recent years, the teddy bear has found its own place on the ice.

Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan, who took the individual silver medal at the Sochi 2014 Games, revealed recently that he had received around 1,200 of these little furry tributes in the space of six years.

Unfortunately, as several skaters have discovered, attempting to donate all these cuddly little bears to children's charities or hospitals is not practical, as the charities and wards insist that such donations have first to be dry-cleaned, and in some cases packaged.

Chan's house, like those of numerous fellow skaters, has thus become a somewhat curious sanctuary for legions of small furry bears. He keeps most of his in the garage.

Canada's Patrick Chan, pictured training in Sochi before taking the individual Olympic silver medal this year, has no problems with skating. But he does have a problem with teddy bears ©Getty Images

There is another constant element involved here. Let's consider. The fan picks up the bouquet or bear, throws it onto the ice. The skater takes them home, puts the flowers in water, phones the local children's hospital about the bears and then puts them in his or her garage.

And making this whole curious chain of events possible is the Flower Retriever.

Earlier this month Skate Canada held flower retriever auditions for local children who wanted to be a part of the Skate Canada International that will take place in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 30 until November 2.

When it comes to such auditions, many are called and few are chosen. Of the 24 children aged nine to 13 who turned up, 12 were judged suitably skilled in the tricky business of clearing the ice of teddy bears, candy bars and similar (the audition presumably didn't test them on women's underwear) with complete efficiency so that other volunteers can fill up jamboree bagsfull of adoration to present to the skaters after they leave the kiss-and-cry area.

What's in it for the kids, you ask? Well, they're part of an exciting atmosphere, they are playing a small but vital part in the success of their given event and - who knows, maybe one day it will help them to become the person at whom the teddies and flowers are directed, rather than the person charged with scooping them all up.

Red roses. They used to be the tribute of choice for the ice skating fan - but now they are viewed as a health and safety nightmare ©Getty Images

As was the case with Nam Gguyen.

In January 2011, at the age of just 12, this son of Vietnamese immigrants earned the distinction of becoming the youngest junior men's champion in Canadian figure skating history, defeating opponents ranging in age from 16 to 19.

Cuddly toys had figured early in this young skater's career - at the age of eight, after winning his first national title in the novice class, Nguyen clutched a teddy bear to him after his victory.

And a year before his junior win, he had been inspired by his experience at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics - where he was a flower gatherer who graduated to a performer during the concluding Olympic drama.

Earlier this year, Nguyen became world junior champion. So the children who will scan the ice in Kelowna later this month can all dream that one day the jamboree bag of adoration might be coming their way...

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. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £8.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Some organisations, including some who benefited from the visibility offered by the choice of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to hold the latest Winter Olympics in Sochi in homophobic Russia, were pleased to cry victory after the announcement made by the IOC that a clause banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would be included in the next Host City Contract, which you can read about here. 

It's understandable that groups seeking to enhance their visibility, their media coverage, and increase their fundraising capacity would want to describe this announcement as a win for them, while ignoring the groups that have had a much longer involvement in the issues, for example the Federation of Gay Games, Human Rights Watch, or the Pride House Movement.

What's this contract change really about? And what would it take for the IOC to truly change the Olympic Movement to respect the principle of sport for all, including LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) athletes? 

The news from America is worryingly conflicting. According to some members of Muhammad Ali's warring family, including his estranged brother Rahman and son Muhammad junior, he is at death's door after suffering from Parkinson's for almost three decades now.

Others, among them his fourth wife Lonnie and daughters Maryum and Hana, insist he continues to live "a full and beautiful life" at his Arizona home.

The truth probably lies somewhere between the two. There does seem to be an element of scaremongering about the inevitable demise of the greatest sports figure of all time but when the 72-year-old former world heavyweight champion finally passes away it will be one of the saddest blows boxing has ever suffered.

As the British promoter Frank Warren says, "No-one in sport has ever been more universally loved."

Like Warren, my own sources tell me Ali's condition is now more serious than it has ever been and I pray the man who so revolutionised boxing remains well enough to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the most memorable fight in the annals of boxing - his Rumble in the Jungle with George Forman - at the end of the month.

News of Ali's deterioration coincidentally comes at a time when two of his former same-generation opponents are both hospitalised. Britain's Joe Bugner, 64 is recovering from a heart attack in Queensland, Australia, where he now lives, and 61-year-old Leon Spinks, the former Olympic light-heavyweight champion who sensationally if briefly, took Ali's world heavyweight title in 1978, has twice undergone emergency stomach surgery in Las Vegas.

The health of Muhammad Ali is increasingly frail, it has been claimed by some members of his family, while others insist he is living a "full and beautiful life"  ©AFP/Getty Images

It was his fiercest old foe, Joe Frazier, who once declared when Ali showed no signs of retiring: "The trouble with him is that he doesn't know how to die."

The irony is that, ailing as he is, Ali has managed to outlive most of the 53 opponents he faced in his 61 fights, not least Smokin' Joe himself.

But the one who does look like outlasting him is the man who took that sensational tumble in the rumble in a jungle clearing outside Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974, when Ali astonishingly regained the title at 32.

George Foreman is very much alive and still in there punching - metaphorically speaking -  seven years younger than his nemesis at 65.

The pugilist-turned preacher- he has his own Baptist church -  lives in Houston, Texas, from where he tells us he and Ali are still regularly in touch and that he loves "like a brother" the man who upended his career with that single corkscrewing right hand eighth round punch.

These days it is a friendship conducted largely by telephone. "I am not closer to anyone else in this life than I am to Muhammad Ali," claims Foreman. "We were forged by that fight in Zaire and our lives are indelibly linked by memories and photographs, as young men and old men. We have a love for each other.

"If you catch him early in the morning, and he is in good spirits, he talks. His wife Lonnie or his daughter will put him on the phone. He's interested in what I'm interested in, we talk about our children and our grandchildren, and he'll still crack a joke."

Between them Ali and Foreman have 19 children (Foreman's five sons are all named George).

"Once when we were exchanging pictures of our grandchildren by text I showed him one picture, he sent back two. He wrote 'Hey George, how many grandchildren have you got?' I've got six, I told him. 'Well I've got eight, George. See - I beat you again,' he said. He still wants to be 'The Greatest'."

The 40th anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle will take place on October 30 - a fight postponed by six weeks because of an injury suffered by George Foreman ©Getty Images

The Rumble in the Jungle remains the most bizarre and the most memorable sporting event lodged in my consciousness. It was an epic happening which you couldn't believe unless you were actually at the ringside enclosed in a magnificent football stadium with upwards 60,000 Zairois screaming "Ali bomaye, Ali bomaye.("Ali kill him, Ali kill him").

So much happened on and around that eventful night they could have written a book about it.  Actually someone did. A guy named Norman Mailer. It was called simply "The Fight".

A huge backdrop image of President Mobutu, who had offered an extraordinary $10 million (£6 million/€8 million) to bring the fight to Kinshasa and put the former Belgian Congo he had renamed Zaire on the map, towered over the crowd.

Mobutu had left little to chance. We were taken on a tour of the stadium which had one blood-stained wall with bullet holes where recent executions had taken place.

We were told Mobutu had also rounded up 40 of Kinshasa's leading criminals before the fight and had then publicly hanged in the main square as a warning that the violent city had to be crime free while the big fight circus was in town. Unsurprisingly it was.

Big George, who had won American hearts by patriotically waving a mini United States flag when receiving his Olympic gold medal in Mexico City in 1968, had developed a sullen, Sonny Liston-like aura as a professional, fuelled by resentment at Ali's resurgent popularity.

He recalls."I remember when I first won the world title [flooring Frazier six times in two rounds in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973] I didn't want to be called the champion, I wanted to be known as a guy who beat Muhammad Ali.

"The trouble was, nobody could beat him. Even when you did, people said you hadn't really. Nobody would say he had lost. It was his autograph they still wanted. He was the one they wanted to hug and kiss."

The fight, promoted by ex-con Don King and bankrolled by the despotic Mobutu went ahead after a six-week postponement when the brooding Foreman's eye was cut in training by a spar-mate's elbow. Foreman was not allowed to leave the country, though Ali was. "When I went to Africa all I wanted to do was get more money," said Foreman, unbeaten in 34 fights at the time.

"Don King agreed to pay me and Ali so much money [$5 million (£3 million/€4 million) apiece] I didn't care where he got it from. Going to Africa meant they weren't going to snatch income tax from us. But I wasn't happy to leave home at all because as soon as I arrived it was clear they loved Ali because of who he was.They just didn't like me. But I wasn't worried by this.

"In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Ali, I didn't have any fear. I thought, 'This is easy. This is what I've been waiting for'. No fear at all. No nervousness.

"I had this air of superiority about me back then. I was going to be the best heavyweight that ever existed. I just couldn't lose. I didn't know how to. But that night something strange and mysterious happened to me.I just couldn't understand it. The punches I had relied on for so many years would land but do nothing.

"In the clinches he would murmur: 'You ain't hurting George, you ain't hurting.' But I could hear him wheeze as I smashed into at his ribs. Then he'd say, 'That all you got George?' Trouble was, it was! Man, he was so brave, so tough.

"It felt like he threw maybe 150 right leads. I can still feel them. I underestimated one of the greatest fighters of all time. That's all there is to it. I underestimated him. And yet I figured he could hit me with all he want, I'd was always going to knock him out. But those punches started to accumulate. And then wham, I was on the floor."

George Foreman was unbeaten in 34 professional fights before the Rumble in the Jungle but was knocked out by Muhammad Ali, who retained the world heavyweight title at the age of 32 ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Foreman had also been sucker-punched by Ali's African rope trick.

Trainer Angelo Dundee was in the ring an hour before the 3am start, apparently loosening them, yet told me later: "Honest, I was actually tightening them. But the heat loosened them again. They were 24 foot ropes and I never wanted Muhammad to lay on them and rope a dope. In fact I whacked his butt whenever he did because I was worried Foreman would hit my kid in the chest and knock him out of the ring. But Muhammad being Muhammad he did his own thing. He always did."

Before the fight Dundee has prophesied that hot favourite Foreman would blow up "like an old bull elephant" and that's precisely what happened.

And then came the rains after Ali's Perfect Storm.

Dawn was breaking over Africa as we drove back to the city through mud roads that had become rivers where young kids splash-danced the Ali shuffle joyously chanting: "Ali bomaye, Ali bomaye".

Foreman had been shuttled away in silence. He now says: "I left there trying to find answers. There had to be more to life than eight, nine ten, out! From all that confidence to devastation in a split second. By the count of 10, my whole life was devastated."

Well not quite. Eventually Foreman was to become world heavyweight champion again at the astonishing age of 45 - the oldest in history - knocking out Michael Moorer, an opponent just over half his age.

The George Foreman Grill has turned the former world heavyweight champion into a multi-millionaire, making him twice as wealthy as his former rival, Muhammad Ali  
©George Forman Grill Company

He also found God - and the George Foreman grill, endorsing a franchise which he sold last year for $137 million (£85 million/€108 million), over twice what Ali is currently believed to be worth.

Now he says he prays every day for ailing Ali. "I pray he pulls through because he truly changed the world. I feel such pride in knowing him because he is a hero to me and everyone.

"He doesn't have to say anything now. The time has come where there is nothing else left to say. He said it all. For me, he's the greatest American that ever lived. I think there should be a Muhammad Ali Day in America, maybe on his birthday.

"Last time we spoke I said, 'Look, I've been thinking things over, Muhammad, and I think I can get you now. I want a rematch.' He just chuckled. It is great that he's still in there fighting."

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 Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

On a recent long haul plane journey back from Asia, I watched an entertaining film called Belle, concerning a girl, Dido Elizabeth Belle, brought up as Britain's first mixed race aristocrat. Set in the late 18th century, it is a must-watch for anyone who likes a Downton Abbey-style costume drama, exploring the themes of romance, class-systems and a society defined by racism.

But it also had a very intriguing political subplot.

William Murray, the 1st Earl of Mansfield who is Belle's uncle and guardian as well as the Lord Chief Justice of England, so the effective head of the judiciary, is battling with a court case holding profound historical implications.

Has Europe given up on FIFA? The question is raised by what seems to have been a particularly productive month for Michel Platini, President of UEFA, the European football body.

It started on September 19 in Geneva, with the announcement of the 13 cities, from Dublin to Baku, which will host matches in the revolutionary Euro 2020 tournament, whose format now seems to chime so well with the prevailing anti-extravagance, down-with-white-elephants zeitgeist.

It will end this week, with the former French midfield general talking Financial Fair Play (FFP) in Rome with European Union (EU) Sports Ministers.

In the interim, Platini has signed what may turn out to be a landmark document, called an "Arrangement for Cooperation", with the European Commission (EC), the EU's executive arm. Oh and he has a book out.

The impression beginning to build is that UEFA has been accepted by a body representing some of the richest and most powerful nations on earth as a responsible administrator and that Platini is a man they think they can do business with.

Two initial observations:

1. What a difference from a few years ago. When, in 2001, I covered the dénouement of the EC's attempts to force changes to the transfer system, the battle-lines were very much Brussels against FIFA/UEFA.

In one report, I wrote that a senior UEFA figure had said the body had found EC officials "almost impossible to deal with" on one issue - this in a letter to the then Swedish Prime Minister.

2. The tone and thrust of the new document, which was also signed by Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, seems very much in line with the direction in which sport's longstanding claims for the right to administer its own affairs appears to be moving.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach spelt out the position that sport seems to be falling into line with in 2009 in a keynote speech to the Olympic Congress.

"Sport must keep and protect its freedom in its relations with the political sphere and have the freedom to take decisions in self-determination and autonomy," Bach said, while also emphasising: "This does not entail creating a legislative vacuum or a parallel world, but simply the possibility for sport to regulate its own, sport-specific affairs under its own responsibility and in accordance with general laws."

The respect of partners is, moreover, he argued, indispensable for the autonomy of sport.

"We earn this respect through responsibility and reliability, by using our autonomy responsibly and acting reliably...

"Sport is completely dependent on its credibility, ie on the credibility of sports competitions and on the credibility and reputation of sports organisations."

UEFA President Michel Platini has made it clear that he no longer supports his Sepp Blatter as head of FIFA ©Getty Images

Could it be then that the EU and UEFA, in a new-found spirit of mutual respect and despairing of the prospect of dislodging FIFA President Sepp Blatter or precipitating meaningful reform in Zurich, have determined, consciously or not, to try and cut FIFA out of key decisions affecting what is far and away the richest and most culturally significant sport in Europe?

We know because of what he told L'Equipe in June that Platini - who has always struck me as quite an impulsive man if also clearly capable of strategic thought - has lost patience with his erstwhile ally.

"I supported him in 1998, but I do not support him in 2014," he told the French sports paper. "And in the future I will not support Mr Blatter."

He also confides, in one of the interviews that make up the new book, "Let's Talk Football", that, "I have done nothing since becoming UEFA President but undertake a rapprochement with the European Commission."

We shall just have to watch what happens in coming months, particularly in two 'hot' areas where their new "arrangement" has enabled UEFA and Brussels to stake out what amounts to a common position.

First, on the transfer regime, the document authorises UEFA to "play a prominent role in seeking appropriate solutions on issues pertaining to players' transfers and agents at European level".

This is interesting because FIFA has decided that a new regulatory system is to take effect from next April.

This will do away with one of football's totemic bogeymen, the licensed agent, but, while FIFA talks about a simpler more transparent system resulting in better enforcement at national level, some other people are predicting chaos.

How will UEFA react next summer if the new regime appears not to be working?

The other area to watch is third-party ownership (TPO).

FIFA is now committed to banning this after a transitional period, but the EC/UEFA document talks rather of the importance of ensuring that TPO does not "threaten the integrity of sporting competition" - a big difference, especially when it is clear that some influential Europe-based interests will fight to keep it, at least in watered-down form.

Transfers and TPO are both issues where UEFA appears well-placed, should it so choose, to make its presence felt, since the vast majority of the world's best footballers aspire to play in Europe or already have European employers.

If one reduces football for a moment to a trial of strength between its two most powerful regulatory bodies (not that it has yet come to that), the balance of forces looks something like this.

UEFA has on its territory both the cream of world football's workforce and all of the wealthiest and most influential clubs.

The success of the Champions League, won this year by Spain's Real Madrid, ensures that Europe need not rely on the World Cup to be financially successful ©Getty Images

The European regulator also possesses the basis for an inherently more stable financial model than FIFA: this is because its annual club competitions, notably the Champions League, mean it is not reliant on one outstandingly opulent golden egg laid once every four years.

UEFA also has a boot in the world governing body's camp, in the shape of eight of the 24 full members of the ruling Executive Committee.

Plus, it has the voting power, if it maintains a rigorously united front, to block proposed changes to FIFA's statutes.

The European side's biggest potential fault-line is that Platini, with his "man of the people" instincts, is not by and large, in my judgement, the favourite administrator of the richest, most powerful clubs.

And if the surprisingly smooth implementation to date of FFP has won him credibility with politicians, it seems unlikely to have endeared him to some of those who see football first and foremost as a money-making vehicle.

Also, let's face it, the Frenchman shares responsibility for one of FIFA's most controversial recent decisions since, as he acknowledges, he was among those who voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup.

FIFA's great strength is its control of the world's most fabled single-sport competition - a tournament from which no player in his prime would want to be excluded and no fan would wish to see devalued.

If things got really nasty, then Blatter's political guile, still remarkably undimmed in this the veteran phase of his administrative career, and the esteem in which he is held in other continents, especially Africa, mean that his European tormentors could probably be portrayed with some success as selfish rich men trying to gobble yet more of football's money-cake.

As host of the next World Cup, moreover, Vladimir Putin's Russia has a very powerful incentive to remain on good terms with FIFA, probably making it impossible for Platini to command an entirely united front in Europe.

Has Europe given up on FIFA? Impossible for now to say, but it is a beguiling question and one we may be closer to getting an answer to by the time Blatter stands, once again, for re-election in May.

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.

Federer v Nadal, Froch v Kessler, Hamilton v Rosberg. Just a few of sport's great rivalries that have enthralled us over recent years and also a key aspiration for the creation of a new international event for martial arts and sports fans alike.

The World Taekwondo Grand Prix, the sports newly established global event series, arrives in Manchester  next week as world sport's focus now hones in on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in just under two years' time.

Pal Schmitt, one of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) most distinguished and longest serving members - 33 years and counting - hasn't got a good word to say for Theodosius I.

The latter got a dishonourable mention in the address Schmitt gave to a group  of up-and-coming sports administrators last week at the Sport Event Management and Organisation Seminar hosted in Tokyo by the Tsukuba International Academy for Sport Studies (TIAS) with the assistance of the International Academy of Sport Science and Technology (AISTS) Mastering Sport group.

As well he might. For this was the Greek ruler who was said to have decided to forbid the ancient Olympics which had been running in Olympia from 776 to 393 BC.

Bloody politicians. That said, Schmitt is also a politician, having served from 2010 to 2012 as President of Hungary, for whom he competed at three Olympics from 1968, winning a team epee gold medal in fencing at the first two.

Here then is a man who has pretty much done it all. When Schmitt speaks, his words carry weight. And right now the 72-year-old former chairman of the IOC's Sport and Environment Commission is speaking about, in his own phrase,"diminishing expectations".

Pal Schmitt, long-serving IOC member, is stressing that a revision of expectations is now necessary for the health of the Olympic Movement ©AFP/Getty Images

By way of establishing his point, Schmitt rehearsed the numbers involved in the 1896 Athens Games, the first modern Olympics, compared to the most recent Summer Games in London.

"The 1896 Games involved 13 countries, 248 athletes, 45 medals and nine sports," Schmitt said. "London 2012 involved 205 countries, 10,500 athletes, 303 gold medals, and 27 sports."

The trend was obvious simply by comparing the stats at the Tokyo 1964 Games with the predicted figures for Tokyo 2020:  "Tokyo '64 involved 117 countries, 5,700 athletes, 22 sports and 163 medals," Schmitt said. "Tokyo 2020 will involve 205 countries, 10,500 athletes, 28 sports and 303 medals.

"Gigantism - overgrowing - is a danger always," Schmitt added. "You cannot give out 600 gold medals, you cannot have 20,000 athletes at the Games. No Olympic Village could cope.

"After the 2000 Sydney Games – no more. This is the size now that is manageable, as we see in Athens [2004], London, Rio, [2016] Tokyo."

More than anything else, this was the keynote of Schmitt's speech.

He maintained his theme when asked about the Youth Olympic Games, which began in Singapore in 2010 and have just had an all-dancing, all-singing incarnation in Nanjing this year.

"So far the Youth Olympic Games has proved to be successful," Schmitt said. "I cannot say the gigantic Opening and Closing Ceremony so far can continue because it is extremely expensive, but the next Games will be in Argentina, where there will be no such luxury or fiesta in the Opening and Closing ceremonies but it will certainly be organised nicely."

Schmitt began his competitive career as a modern pentathlete before deciding his athletic prowess could best be expressed through just one of the event's five disciplines.

But he was robust in his refusal to countenance the suggestion floated last year by the President of the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM), Dr Klaus Schormann, that this disparate sport should seek in future to run its five events over five hours in a dedicated stadium.

In Rio 2016, modern pentathlon is scheduled to take place at the Deodoro Complex over two days. Tokyo 2020 meanwhile has scheduled the modern pentathlon fencing to take place at Musashino Forest Sport Centre, with the other four disciplines being hosted by the Tokyo Stadium.

"Five sports in five hours in one stadium – that is modern pentathlon's concept, but it is not compulsory," Schmitt said. "We don't need a stadium for modern pentathlon. We want to keep it on the Olympic programme even if it's not so easy as only 40-50 countries regularly practise Modern Pentathlon out of 205 - 40-50 countries is nothing.

"Modern pentathlon has to spread out its participation. We don't need a special facility for it. Modern pentathlon never has more than 4,000 or 5,000 spectators. You don't go to see swimming as it has no sense for other people - you have to swim 200 metres and you cannot really measure who is the best. It is difficult for spectators.

"I am a lover of modern pentathlon, but I must tell you, if they are misplaced if they want a huge stadium."

The women compete at London 2012 during the women's modern pentathlon, a sport that must alter itself to ensure its place within the Olympic programme, warns Pal Schmitt
©Getty Images

Schmitt held to the same theme when asked to comment upon the diminishing number of cities in the hunt for the 2022 Winter Games - following Oslo's sudden decision to withdraw, those Games are now destined either for Beijing or Almaty.

"The 2022 Winter Games is a bit difficult," Schmitt said. "Even Oslo, one of the richest countries in the world, has voted in Parliament to withdraw. So now we have two candidates - we will see."

Schmitt sees the reluctance of some cities to persist with their Olympic ambitions as a clear message to the Olympic Movement to reassess some of its assumptions.

"We have to diminish our expectations," he said. "The last four summer Olympics have been given to cities of 10 million inhabitants or more. How about other cities in Europe, or South America? Normal sized cities? We have to give a chance to smaller cities, we have to care about our expectations and fulfil smaller countries' requirements.

"At the moment the bidding procedure is quite complicated. Bidding cities have to fulfil around 11 different requirements. But the other expectations have to be slowed down. They are not that important. For instance, we force Organising Committees to have a cultural programme.

"Somehow we have to either help them more financially, or we have to say that only existing facilities can be used, for instance the Olympic Vlllage should be a university or military campus. No more luxury. We have to bring lower expectations of Opening and Closing Ceremonies. There are a lot of ways to find the best way to have more and more cities taking this challenge of having the Games."

Looking ahead to the Extraordinary Session of the IOC scheduled for Monaco on December 8 and 9 to discuss potentially radical changes to the Olympic Movement as proposed by the IOC President Thomas Bach as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 proposal, Schmitt added: "I cannot give the answer now but after December we will have recommendations for smaller countries to participate."

Not that any of the foregoing is remotely indicative of the idea that idealism should be diminished.

"I was the only Head of State in the world who was an Olympic champion - quite a message. So when I spoke in the United Nations they know I come from a background of sport," Schmitt said.

Hungary has introduced a compulsory hour's PE into its school curriculum ©Getty Images

"Last year we decided we don't want to have champions all that much. The most important is that kids in Hungary have access to sport. So we say there must be PE every day in our schools. It is extremely difficult, every day, to fit PE in with maths, history and grammar. Some people say these subjects are more important than PE, that you can run whenever you want. But we have decided.

"So for basic school, for kids from six to 14, every day there is one hour compulsory PE. We need more facilities, but we will do it. This is the chance to shape Hungarian children. Hungary is the only country in Europe that has every day physical education. It is also part of our project that every city with over 50,000 inhabitants must have swimming pools.

"The Government is making a huge effort to make sports accessible. We are not dreaming gold medals. We are dreaming Hungarian kids who will enjoy sport and use it in their life to face all kinds of challenge."

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.

Anthony Joshua, who is fast becoming the most personable pugilist in the business, celebrated his first full year as a pro last weekend by roughing up a Russian. The 2012 Olympic super-heavyweight champion, who has impressively slam-bammed his way through his first nine fights now seems to be accelerating towards the world title in record time for a British boxer.

By coincidence the week also registered another first anniversary. It is a year since Helen Grant became David Cameron's surprise selection as Sports Minister and like 24-year-old Joshua she has used the past 12 months to as a learning curve, flexing her muscles in readiness for bigger fights ahead.

Like heavyweight champions, Sports Ministers come and go. Since Harold Wilson first created the role for Denis Howell exactly 50 years ago there has been a steady procession of the good, the bad and the utterly hopeless. And there have been quite a few of the latter, mostly some of the dismal tail-enders sent into bat in the Thatcher/Major years.

The jury may still be out on the latest Tory incumbent as Grant continues to steadily play the bowling following the outstanding Hugh Robertson's elevation to the Foreign Ministry. But the indications are that having survived a few opening bouncers - like Richard Caborn, she was caught off guard when subjected to an impromptu  pub-type quiz on the minutiae of sport - she is digging herself in for a respectable innings - at least until next year's election.

Helen Grant is celebrating a year since she was appointed as Britain's first-ever black and only second-ever female Sports Minister ©DCMS

"A dream come true" is how the first black  - and only second woman -  Sports Minister described her new job to me when I introduced her to a predominantly macho world, including Joshua, at a the Boxing Writers' Clubn annual dinner the night she she took office..

Since then the 53-year-old former lawyer's profile has been somewhat lower than Joshua's, and those of her more recent predecessors, but a measure of the different way she has decided to do things comes in a rare testimony of approval from the Opposition benches.  

"I like her very much," says Labour's Kate Hoey, the first female Sports Minister. "We were in Geneva together recently when Wembley won the right to host the final stages of the Euro 2020 Championships. She is obviously enjoying the job and getting to grips with the intricacies of sport. It is a hugely complicated business and it takes time. It is not just being there as a cheerleader.

"She has clearly leaned a lot from Hugh [Robertson] and I am pleased we have someone  who knows the importance of supporting and nourishing the grass roots. Too many Sports Ministers have been totally obsessed with football."

Sentiments echoed by Robertson - now Sir Hugh: "Helen has quietly done a fantastic job of rolling up her sleeves and getting on with supporting and encouraging grassroots sport. This sort of work rarely attracts the headlines but it makes a huge difference to all the volunteers and participants on the ground."

While Grant certainly has been beavering away at the grass roots there are those who would like to have seen the ex-teenage judo champion publicly throwing her weight around a bit more at the elite end and putting the stranglehold on those lingering chauvinistic elements in sport.

"Throwing my weight around?" she queried in an exclusive interview with insidethegames. "That has never been my style. I prefer to try and get things moving in an organised, constructive  way and I believe it is working."

Encouraging grassroots sport is an important aspect of the British Sports Minister's role, claims Helen Grant ©Getty Images

Not that it has been easy. As a black female, football's corridors of power are not a natural habitat, as Heather Rabbatts, the former executive chair of Millwall, has discovered.

Rabbatts was chosen to sit on Greg Dyke's Football Association Commission but was soon deriding it for having "absolutely no representation from the black and ethnic minority communities".

Dyke has finally delivered his verdict but one of the hottest topics in football right now, the lack of black managers in the League - and the possible introduction of American Football's Rooney Rule, whereby ethnic minority candidate must be included in the interview process for such posts - is surely likely to rise to the top of Grant's agenda soon.

The Minister says she is an ardent advocate of meritocracy. But she does acknowledge that more needs to be done to widen the talent pool and get black coaches to the top.

She tells us: "The lack of black and ethnic minority managers in the game is a concern. I want to see more from football in getting black coaches through the ranks. The FA are making some progress but there is still more to do. I want a talent pool of people from all walks of life qualified and knocking on the door for the top jobs."

But she insists:" I don't have any problems doing business with those I deal with in football. I have a very good working relationship with both the Premier League and the FA. I get on well with Richard Scudamore, Greg Dyke and Alex Horne.

"We have honest exchanges about ways in which we can work together to improve the national game, as our successful bid for the European Championships demonstrated.

"I meet them regularly with recent discussions focusing on what more can be done to improve the general governance of the game.

"Having been a lawyer for 23 years prior to becoming an MP I know the value of governance in creating solid foundations, which are of course essential for any structure of national importance.

"My current role as a Minister for Sport and Tourism [her  portfolio for equalities has been transferred to the Education Department] and my many commitments in my constituency of Maidstone and the Weald, present a similar type of challenge. It's all about being organised and knowing how to delegate and prioritise."

Controversial she isn't, and certainly no Tony Banks when it comes to expressing forthright views (when I once asked the late leftie, as Sports Minister, for his on-the-record comment on a particular issue he responded:"On the record? It's effing bollocks!")

Helen Grant may be lower profile than some of her predecessors but she has not afraid to show off her skills as a sportswoman when given the opportunity ©British Council

Grant is far more circumspect. "Like the rest of the country I was disappointed that we didn't progress further at the World Cup in Brazil. It was always going to be a tough group to get out of. But the experience gained by our younger players will surely be a benefit for the future and now it's about working towards a good showing at the [2016] European Championships in France."

Never mind Banksie. Robertson was always going to be a hard act to follow. "I've picked up the baton from Hugh and am working hard to ensure that the legacy from the Olympic Games continues," she says. "Hugh did a fantastic job. He'd shadowed the brief for such a long time before he was Minister and the London 2012 Games gave the whole nation memories that will last a lifetime. Hugh deserves a lot of credit for his excellent work on the Games.

"But there is still more to do. I am looking to do more on sports facilities, specifically 3G pitches, working with the football authorities. We are also close to finalising an expert group of people from across football that will look at what more can be done to represent fans' interests in the way their clubs are run.

"Sports participation in this country is at an all-time high and I am pleased with the success that we have had in raising the profile of women's sport, which is one of my top priorities.

"There are now more young women, aged 16-25, playing sport than ever before. The broadcasters like BBC and Sky Sports have certainly upped their game too and we're seeing more coverage in the press as well. But there is still more to do.

"It's now about keeping up the momentum. I am hosting a major conference at the end of the month at Lord's on the subject as we look to galvanise the sports world and businesses to do more to support women's sport."

Perhaps her most signigficant breakthrough so far has been in banging heads together at UK Sport and Sport England to effect a re-think over basketball's shameful loss of funding. "I strongly believe basketball is a sport with huge growth potential in this country. It is popular in our inner cities and can reach young people from all sorts of backgrounds, particularly BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) groups.

"We need a national team competing rather than facing extinction and that is why I personally stepped in and asked Sport England and UK Sport to put their heads together and come up with a solution. We're not there yet but are close and I am keeping up the pressure to get the right deal done to benefit the sport."

"It is essential we give the kids that are competing and learning the sport at the grassroots something to aim for and a pinnacle to aspire to.

"From all the hours I spent on the judo mat, on the hockey pitch, on the tennis court, I know what it takes for sports people, their coaches and their clubs to achieve a high standard. It was unpaid volunteers - all unsung heroes - working at the grassroots that ignited my passion for sport at a young age and boosted my confidence and self-esteem at a time in my life when I really needed it.  That tacit understanding has enabled me to connect directly with the athletes and other stakeholders in the world of sport."

Helen Grant has attended this year's big sporting events, including the FIFA World Cup in Brazil Helen Grant may be lower profile than some of her predecessors but she has not afraid to show off her skills as a sportswoman when given the opportunity ©Getty Images

This has been a big year for British sport and among her most pleasurable moments, she says, was watcthing Team GB's successes at the Winter Olympics in Sochi earlier this year. "I think the performances of our athletes in both the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were fantastic. To see the likes of Lizzy Yarnold, Jenny Jones, Jade Etherington and Katie Gallagher do so well and our men's and women's curling teams' was a thrill.

"Their success and the home nation performances at the Commonwealth Games is testament to the strength of our ongoing Olympic legacy and to how well our elite sport programme is working.

"Glasgow put on a fantastic Games and the hard work we put in to deliver the first three stages of the Tour De France also paid off handsomely.

"I also had a great time up in Sheffield meeting Nicola Adams and the rest of the British boxing team. Nicola is such an infectious person to be around - always smiling, bubbly and full of energy - and an incredible role model for young women.  I got in the ring and put the pads on for a short sparring session and believe me that girl certainly packs a punch."

So does Big Josh of course. Unlike him, Hurricane Helen may not yet be a  heavyweight contender but she has turned out to be no lightweight when it comes to fighting sport's corner.

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 Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire

On September 15, the day I relocated to Milton Keynes from Manchester to take up my new post with insidethegames, I was pleasantly surprised to be told that I would be travelling to Austria less than four weeks later to cast my journalistic eye over a significant conference ahead of the 2015 Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein.