Olympic marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia remains hopeful he will compete for his country again after he made an anti-Government gesture when crossing the line at Rio 2016. 

Four-time Paralympic medallist Kadeena Cox has had her UK Sport funding suspended by British Athletics while she participates in Channel 4’s winter sport series The Jump due to the safety risks involved.

When table tennis made its debut in the Olympics at Seoul in 1988 the men's competition was notable for the fact that none of the top five seeded players made it to the semi-finals. Among those defeated in the quarter-finals was two-time world champion Jiang Jialiang, one of China's biggest sports stars at the time, who was defeated in four games by tenth-ranked Erik Lindh from Sweden. The shock defeats for the top players meant that the final was an all-South Korean affair between Yoo Nam-Kyu and Kim Ki-Taik. Yoo triumphed in four games. Lindh, meanwhile, won the bronze medal. Yoo also won a bronze medal at Seoul 1988 in the men's doubles. Four years later he won the bronze medal in the men's doubles together with Kim and at Atlanta 1996 he claimed another bronze medal in the men's doubles, this time together with Lee Chul-seung.

World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont has hailed 2016 as a "special, memorable and successful year" and believes the governing body can continue to fend off the threats which have plagued other sports in 2017.

Results of the retesting process of samples given by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi could be available in "one to two months", International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Gerhard Heiberg has claimed.

Thomas Bach's under-reported New Year’s message contains a remarkable statement.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has promised to hold officials to account following alleged mismanagement of the Kenyan team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has admitted the integrity of the Olympic Games was "threatened" during 2016 but claimed there is "no doubt we will finish 2017 in a stronger position than we have begun it".

The 1908 Olympics were due to be held in Rome, but the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906 left Italy needing to divert resources into disaster relief and rebuilding. With time running out, the International Olympic Committee asked Britain to step in as host. That gave London less than two years to prepare. But with Lord Desborough, the British Olympic Association's chairman, to the fore, and the support of King Edward VII, the challenge was accepted. A Franco-Britannic Exhibition was to be held in West London in 1908, and Desborough signed a deal that meant, in return for a share of gate receipts, the exhibition organisers agreed to fund and build a 66,000-capacity stadium next to their site, and even donated £2,000 towards its running costs.

Eurosport has unveiled new branding to officially mark the beginning of the agreement - starting today - which makes the channel the new home of the Olympic Games in Europe.

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. 

As I gazed into the bright December sunshine outside of my window and contemplated what I have watched, seen and covered over an indelible 12-month period of sport and politics, a Twitter notification popped up on my screen.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has delivered an uplifting year-end review of 2016 in which he claimed sport has shown its power to "unite all people in an increasingly fragile world".

Olympic silver medallist Yana Romanova of Russia has claimed she is not guilty of doping after being provisionally suspended by the International Biathlon Union (IBU).

Mo Farah's two gold medals are among a number of Rio 2016 results removed from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) website, which some are speculating has been hacked.