The Sochi Winter Olympics are meant to be Vladimir Putin's crowning achievement as Russian leader but are in danger of becoming a symbol of his country's problems.
Evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the Sochi Olympics was confirmed on Monday in a report by an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Notwithstanding how the current impasse is solved, at some point in the future, Russia will realise that just as centuries ago it developed the paradigm of securing its heartland's safety through annexing vast buffer zones between itself and the enemy, a more modern security is possible only through friendly relations and sustainable peace, observes Shyam G Menon.
Here are some reactions from the world of sport on of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
'If we want to ensure this isn't a once-in-four-decade phenomenon, then we have to produce 1,800 players all the time, create infrastructure, so that we are constantly challenging at the top of the ladder.'
With neither partner seemingly willing to consider scrapping the event as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc globally, we consider the options available, and possible scenarios:
The Briton will be toiling flat out on May Day, the international workers' holiday, to deny his German rival a seventh successive win and fourth of the sport's longest ever season.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
The honour of lighting the Sochi Olympic flame was given to two triple Olympics champions on Friday as Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina jointly lit the cauldron at Russia's first Winter Games on Friday.
Although the change will have no immediate effect on current bans on the Russian federations for athletics, weightlifting and paralympics, it opens the door for their return, following the reinstatement of the Russian Olympic Committee after the country was banned from this year's Winter Games in South Korea.
In what is seen as the first sign of China's exasperation over Russia's Ukraine war, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday raised 'questions and concerns' over the conflict in his meeting in Samarkand with Russian President Vladimir Putin who thanked Beijing for its 'balanced position' on the crisis.
Postponing the Rio Olympics due to fears that the event could speed the spread of the Zika virus would give a "false" sense of security because travelers are constantly going in and out of Brazil, the chair of the WHO's Emergency Committee said. Extensive travel in a globalised world is the issue, not the Games that start on August 5, said David Heymann, chair of the Health Protection Agency in Britain who also leads the World Health Organization's panel of independent experts on Zika. "The problem is not the Olympics, the problem is other travel besides the Olympics, if there is a problem," Heymann told Reuters in a telephone interview from London on Monday. "People go in and out of Brazil all the time for holiday, for business, for whatever. And the Olympics is much less travel, it would be one-time travel. It's actually in the winter months when hopefully transmission (of the virus) is less."
Rediff.com's Tista Sengupta gets models to do crazy things behind the ramp.
The Swiss lawyer heading up a committee charged with reforming the structure and management of world soccer body FIFA says major changes to the organization's voting structure and imposing term limits on executive committee members will be difficult to achieve in the short term.
Despite a crash in training that hampered his preparation, India's five-time Winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan put in a dominating performance to clinch the gold medal at the Asian Luge Championship in Nagano.
Track and field star Lolo Jones is the most high-profile crossover athlete to try her hand at winter sports since former NFL running back Herschel Walker took off his shoulder pads and climbed into a bobsled.
India's differently-abled athletes returned with the largest haul of medals in the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games at Pyeong Chang, South Korea.
Russian Olympic medallist Alexander Krushelnitsky has denied taking a banned substance in a suspected doping case that has rocked the Pyeongchang Winter Games and could imperil Russia's efforts to regain its full Olympic status.
The face of the Moscow world championships, Yelena Isinbayeva, has condemned Swede Emma Green-Tregaro's gesture of support for the Russian gay community as disrespectful and said she supported the law banning the promotion of homosexuality.
The Olympic flame is nowhere to be seen. The enduring image of the Summer and Winter Games, lit Friday night at the climax of the opening ceremony, is out of sight from the throngs of fans who hoped to catch an inspiring glimpse or take the photo of a lifetime.
Races in New Jersey, Mexico and South Korea were dropped from Formula One's official 2014 calendar on Wednesday, with the season remaining at 19 races instead of a record 22.
US WNBA All-Star Griner's detention in Russia extended
Mercedes are expected to wrap up the constructors' championship on Sunday with three races to spare, having won 12 of the 15 so far with eight one-two finishes.
Lindsey Vonn's model looks and famous boyfriend have often gained her more spotlight than her speed on two skis back in her home country.
OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah said the Asian Games is already too big.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday voted in favour of awarding hosting rights for the 2024 and 2028 summer Olympics at the same session in September, pending agreements with Paris and Los Angeles.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
The favourites to win next year's World Cup in Russia were given navigable paths to the last 16 with the coaches of Germany, Brazil, Argentina and Spain having reason to feel reasonably optimistic after Friday's draw.
Paralympics boss Andrew Parsons expressed disgust that Russian authorities had let down the country's clean athletes
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
The sports field saw two special mentions at the 90th Oscar Awards on Sunday night.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Five-time world champion and London Olympics bronze-medallist woman boxer MC Mary Kom is eyeing a comeback to the ring at this year's Asian championship in Vietnam before deciding her future course of action.
Brazilian police said on Monday they had detained a director of international sports hospitality company THG Sports and a woman working as an interpreter at the Rio Olympics on charges of fraudulent marketing of tickets for the Games.
Austria's Olympic Committee received a letter threatening to kidnap two Austrian athletes at the Games that start this week in Sochi, Russia, the Austria Press Agency reported on Tuesday, citing national committee head Peter Mennel.
Formula One's 83-year-old commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said in May that an agreement had been signed for a street race in the Azeri capital, on the shores of the Caspian sea, next year.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
