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.

Tadashi Ishii has resigned from his role as President and chief executive of Dentsu after an employee of the marketing giants committed suicide on Christmas Day last year due to being overworked.

A senior serving Russian anti-doping official has denied admitting that the country operated an "institutional conspiracy" during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Three-time Olympic gold medallist Gabby Douglas of the United States has become the first ambassador of an initiative aimed at tackling cyber-bulling.

Prefectural and Municipal Governments whose cities will host events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have expressed their concern that they may have to shoulder costs for the construction of temporary facilities for the event.

Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua, who made worldwide headlines after his Opening Ceremony appearance at the Rio 2016 Olympics, has said he still intends to compete in taekwondo despite targeting an unlikely appearance at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games.

As my colleague David Owen has already made clear, sport has provided many golden moments to light-up a largely bleak 2016. 

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.