Polish pole vaulter Władysław Kozakiewicz gestured angrily at spectators following his winning leap to secure the Olympic gold medal at Moscow 1980 after they had booed, hissed, jeered, and whistled him during the competition, where his closest rival was the Soviet Union's Konstantin Volkov. Pictures of the incident circled the globe, with the exception of the Soviet Union and its satellites, although the event was broadcast live on TV in many countries there. Kozakiewicz's act received much support in Poland, which was in the midst of labour strikes that led to the creation of the labor union Solidarity less than two months later. After the Games, the Soviet ambassador in Warsaw demanded that Kozakiewicz be stripped of his medal over his "insult to the Soviet people". The official response of the Polish Government was that Kozakiewicz's arm gesture had been an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion. To this day in Poland the obscene insult is called "Kozakiewicz's gesture".

The International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS) have made the worldwide rules of roller derby publicly available for the first time to ease confusion.

Newly elected Polish Weightlifting Federation (PWF) Mariusz Jędra has vowed to "clean up" the sport in his homeland following the doping scandal that engulfed the team at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Ethiopian middle-distance runner Miruts Yifter, a double Olympic champion at the 1980 Games in Moscow, has died in Toronto at the age of 72.

Japan's Tadahiro Nomura is widely considered the greatest judoka in Olympic history, having won gold medals in the under 60 kilogram category at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens. Nomura is only judoka to have won three consecutive Olympic gold medals. He was first Olympic competitor from Asia to win three consecutive gold medals in any event. His win in Athens was 100th gold medal won by Japan in the Summer Olympics since the country's debut at Stockholm in 1912. Nomura's father was the coach of Shinji Hosokawa, winner of an Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles 1984 in the same division. Nomura's uncle, Toyokazu Nomura, meanwhile, was also an Olympic gold medalist at Munich 1972 in the under 70 kg division.

The director of THG Sports, one of two agencies at the centre of the controversy over alleged illegal ticket sales at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, has returned to Ireland according to his lawyer.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová has promised she will "do everything possible" to return to competitive tennis "one day" after suffering potentially career-threatening injuries to her left hand in a knife attack at her home.

The United States have ended the year as the top-ranked women’s football team after FIFA published the last updated list of 2016.

Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Artur Aleksanyan has been named Armenia’s athlete of the year for the third time in a row.

Indonesia’s two Olympic silver medal-winning weightlifters from Rio 2016 have been awarded free houses by their national governing body.

Iran’s Sajjad Mardani says his recent victory at the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) Grand Prix Final in Baku has given him a new-found confidence after a disappointing performance at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

English-language "stop" and "slow" signs are due to be installed in Tokyo to reduce traffic problems in the build-up to the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the National Police Agency (NPA) have announced.

The Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) has set the target of being in the top three nations in terms of fighters qualified for Tokyo 2020 after publishing its strategic plan for the next Olympic cycle.

The coach that guided Fiji’s rugby sevens team to Olympic gold at Rio 2016 has said the squad should split from the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) in order to ensure they are properly managed.

It is fair to say that 2016 has not been a vintage year for sports administrators. Too old, too stuck in the past and too out of touch with the needs and desires of the modern world are among common gripes. And, for all their powerful rhetoric about youth and innovation shown through gestures like adding skateboarding and surfing to the Tokyo 2020 programme, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been tarred with the same brush.