Oleg Verniaiev speaks with The Olympic Channel on his goals for Tokyo 2020 and much more in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview.

Paris 2024 continues heartbreak: why can't squash get a fair chance? Squash players aren't the only upset sportspeople.

I don't know if it's me that's old and out-of-touch, or if it's the IOC members that are old and foolish for thinking breaking is the right direction to reach "youth", but either way I suppose one needs to get used to results and news like this. B-Girl Kastet and B-Boy Shigekix??

Olympian track & field siblings Thomas and Jessie Barr launch a "Runuary" health program to help everyone in Ireland with their running goals throughout January.

Meanwhile, Team USA looks at sprinters' Grant Holloway's and TJ Holmes' "RunJumpThrow" event to teach kids athletics as they fill up their pandemic time.

Morgan Cipres: Sh*t just got real.

Olympic.org checks in with some members of the Refugee Athlete Scholarship team, including swimmer Yusra Mardini, wrestlers Amir Al-Awad and Aker Al Obaidi, and boxer Farid Walizadeh and how they are giving back to their communities while still training for Tokyo 2020.

​Might athletics legend Jim Thorpe get his due again, finally?

Cycling held an ESports World Championship...and Olympic rower (!) Jason Osborne wins the men's elite race, over a field of accomplished, professional cyclists. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio won the women's race.

Marco Odermatt ends a 10-year drought for Switzerland in a men's World Cup giant slalom race. And in the same race, Maarten Meiners also made history - scoring the first-ever World Cup points for a Dutch skier with his 26th place.

The general Paris 2024 program is set (bar a suspended offshore sailing decision and a TBD athletics event at the expense of race walkers). Frustration for established sports not able to add events that make sense - modern pentathlon mixed relay, table tennis doubles. And head scratching on the expected confirmation of breakdancing - er, breaking - a sport that, Youth Olympic Games 2018 inclusion aside (really, that's the sole go-to example), just hasn't had enough of a track record to prove worthy of Olympic inclusion. If I'm squash, I'm beyond devastated. And anyone else note the exclusion of baseball/softball. Really, sports and events need to be added with long term inclusion in mind. Those ball players must be so irritated, facing what is a lame duck inclusion at Tokyo 2020. How to develop a sport if there isn't a repeat appearance offered? My thoughts are summed up succinctly here.

Congrats to the World Athletics 2020 awards winners, including athletes of the year Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas!

Valencia: It must have been something in the water for long-distance runners in 2020...

Canadian Olympic ice hockey gold medalist Shannon Szarbados is now a children's book author.

U.S. swimming legends Donna de Varona and John Naber are elected onto the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Board, representing athlete alumni.

Olympian Breanna Stewart named one of Sports Illustrated's Sportspersons of the Year...not without some deserved controversy, though.

The Sports Australia Hall of Fame inductee class for 2020 includes Olympians Lauren Jackson (basketball), Matthew Mitcham (diving), Bridgette Ireland (water polo), and Cadel Evans (mountain biking). Congrats, all!

Double Olympian and London 2012 gold medalist Katie Taylor named "best pound-for-pound professional women's boxer" in the world, according to Ring magazine to end the year.

Tokyo 2020: Canada has a bounty of riches in the women's -57kg class in judo, with the top two world-ranked judokas...and only one Tokyo 2020 spot.

Salt Lake City 2002 gold medalist Rhona Howie speaks up to support and protect endangered curling opportunities in home Scotland.

Turmoil within Australian field hockey? The women are currently ranked third in the world.

Munich 1972 gold medalist Dan Gable honored with the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for his career's work in wrestling as an athlete and coach.

New Zealand veteran freestyle skier Byron Wells speaks with Team NZ on his career, and plans on the future on the heels of his retirement announcement.

Legend Kerri Lee Walsh joins Volleyball Ireland for an online Q&A to discuss her road to Tokyo, volleyball, and more.

Tomasso Dotti shares his thoughts on what has made the Italian short track team succcessful over the last few Games.

There may be a bit of an asterisk on the competition, as so many nations declined to compete due to the current pandemic, but kudos to Linoy Ashram. The Israeli became the first non-Russian individual all-around European Rhythmic Gymnastics Champion since 1997. Without Russia, Spain, Italy, and other nations, the medal table featured a new smattering of flags, including Estonia, Turkey, and Hungary alongside Israel, Belarus, and Bulagaria across nine events.

Retired sprinter Christian Malcolm is now head of British Athletics. (He's the first Black??)

​Can Caeleb Dressel swim even faster in the 50 meters freestyle?

Unsure of the impact that political unrest has had on Belarusian athletes? Hear decathlete Andrei Krauchanka's story via Reuters.

Competing on home turf in Moscow at the Sport Climbing European Championships, Russians Aleksei Robtsov and Viktoriia Meshkova became the 17th qualifiers for the men's and women's sport climbing debut at Tokyo 2020 next year. Just three spots in each gender's field of 20 remain - one each for an African, Pan American, and Oceanian representative.

The current big four of men's pole vaulting open up with Olympic.org in a fun Q&A.

Sonia O'Sullivan laments the pandemic-induced lost seasoning of Ireland's up-and-coming track and field athletes.

The sprinting Lyles brothers Noah and Josephus announce a sports-focused non-profit supporting community youth.

Congrats to the Olympians who received Members of Canada honors last week: swimmer Mark Tewksbury (Companion honors), rower Dr. Sandra Kirby (Officer), and figure skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Members).

And congrats also to biathlete Linda Zingerle, who was chosen as the winner of the Winter Piotr Nurowski Prize from the European Olympic Committee. Honoring rising young sports(wo)men, the top prize comes with an approximately $18,000 USD cash award.

And more biathlon...Sturla Holm Laegreid was the breakout star as the 2020/21 season kicked off with the 30th anniversary World Cup race at Kontiolahti Holm Laegreid took the opening men's 20km individual title before star Johannes Thingnes Boe settled back into first with the sprint victory the next day. Veterans Dorothea Weirer and Hanna Oeberg won the women's 15km individual and sprint races, respectively.

Another Norwegian making a fresh mark is Halvor Egner Graverud, who won his first ski jumping podium at the season's second stop in Ruka. Gratulerer!

Speaking of Norway...Inside the Games reports that the national federation of figure skating is following through on a request to increase the age limit for female figure skaters. Of course, since the proposal would adversely affect the Russian pipeline, Russia objects...never mind sound medical developmental advice.

The International Canoe Federation proposes some changes to its Olympic program at Paris 2024. Extreme Slalom? I'm with Saul, amongst others.

I'm a Star Wars fan, but enough of one to know that David Prowse / Darth Vader was a weightlifter who had appeared in the Commonwealth Games...

Olympic Rule 50: Now this would be an impactful moment...would the IOC be that daring?

Could cricket make an Olympic return?

The New York Times provides a little retrospective on Tokyo 1964 on what would have been Tokyo 2020's midpoint.

The NY Times also looks at how skeleton athletes are experiencing head trauma and its aftereffects.

U.S. star Brady Ellison features in a new archery documentary, "Believe".

The Olympic Channel profiles Remco Evenepoel...might he succeed in road cycling gold?

More unfortunate evidence of Covid-19's pervasiveness...Wayde van Niekerk has a positive test.

Beth Tweddle looks back at the opportunity to compete with a home crowd at London 2012.

Speaking of gymnastics, Chellsie Memmel aims for a comeback.

Cross country running back in the Olympics? Yes, please...

A Little Roundup

Well, yes..a shortened period in-between Games should help athletes stay on for 2024.

Thanks to Sweden not having locked down, some athletes have found competition.

For the sake of cycling, let's hope the Tour de France is only postponed.

It's too often hard to be an early voice of reason.

An Irish rower fights the pandemic and for the Olympics.

Nevermind Coronavirus, baseball is back!

Kevin Love goes matchy-matchy.