There’s very little snow in Africa but, even so, since 1984 at least one African nation has competed at each winter Olympics and African athletes have been trailblazers.
The decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency to lift its ban on Russia’s drug testing has set off another controversy about whether there will ever be a level playing field in the world of sports.
The mainstream media has knocked Brazil for the Zika virus, doping scandals and safety concerns. But citizen social media users, by revealing an alternate narrative, could even the score for Rio.
Whatever hoo ha about human rights and corruption gets attached to the Chinese Winter Olympics victory, it won’t be allowed to detract from the event itself.
Tolstoy’s celebrated novel War and Peace has recently been enjoying some fresh attention thanks to a number of adaptations. BBC Radio 4 broadcast a ten-part adaptation of the novel. Later this year, the…
Oslo has pulled out of the bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics, leaving only two cities in the running: the Chinese capital, Beijing, and Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. This virtually guarantees…
Over the weekend, Australian Winter Paralympians broke their medal drought at Sochi to end the Games with two skiing bronze medals – one won by Toby Kane in Super Combined and the other by Jessica Gallagher…
What we anticipated might happen in Sochi, in the end did not. Following bomb attacks in the Russian city of Volgograd a couple of months prior to the Winter Olympic Games, several governments issued grave…
Watching the Paralympics makes us forget about the term “disability” and the idea that sport with a disability is about limitations. The athletes on the slopes and rinks at Sochi are showing us that theirs…
Whether an athlete is competing at the Olympics or Paralympics, anxiety management is one of the most common psychological issues experienced. Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion with distinctive features…
The founding fathers of the Paralympics must be turning in their graves. The Sochi Paralympics is the latest in a long list of sporting events to be marred by politics. The 1980 Olympics in the then USSR…
The Winter Olympic Games has finished up in Sochi, but our Paralympic athletes are preparing themselves to compete in two of the six disciplines scheduled at the Winter Paralympic Games. So who are they…
Tasked with winding down the over-exuberance of the build-up, Olympics closing ceremonies always have an anti-climactic tone. Terrorists from the Caucasus failed to disrupt the Sochi event, and the most…
The Closing Ceremony for the 2014 Sochi Olympics went off without a hitch last night. Again the theatrical extravaganza was mesmerising and some of the dazzle matched the earlier ceremony, but the finale…
Honorary Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Canada; Adjunct Fellow, Olympic Scholar and Co-Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Research Centre, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University