It is 17 years, give a take a few months, since a shy, fresh-faced 17-year-old boy from Bolton stood on the rostrum at the Athens Olympic Games to have a silver medal draped around his neck as GB Boxing’s sole representative.

Whether by accident or design it was certainly a smart move by the Japanese Government to bring in a woman to replace a misogynistically-inclined octogenarian to head up Tokyo 2020's Organising Committee.

A new Olympic Museum is set to open in Athens in the very district which was once home to the revered 1896 marathon champion Spiridon Louis.

World Sailing has paid tribute to Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist Kevin Burnham who has died aged 63.

Double Paralympic powerlifting gold medallist Lin Tzu-hui of Chinese Taipei will miss the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games after receiving a two-year ban for testing positive for a prohibited substance.

As international sport has grown longer in the tooth, it has become fairly commonplace for cities – and now countries – to aspire to host events they first staged a century ago.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified for weighing in at nearly four pounds above the limit for his weight class of his under-66 kilograms match against an Israeli opponent Ehud Vaks in the first round. It was claimed Miresmaeili had gone on an eating binge to protest the International Olympic Committee's recognition of the state of Israel. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel, and Miresmaeili's actions won praise from high-ranking Iranian officials. Mohammad Khatami, the country's President at the time, was quoted as saying Miresmaili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories".  He was later awarded $125,000 by the Government - the same amount given to Olympic gold medallists. 

Finland’s four-time Paralympian Minna Leinonen has retired from shooting and will not defend her world title in Cheongju in May.

Brazil's Robert Scheidt, winner of five Olympic medals, including two gold, has announced his retirement from Olympic competition, ending a career that spanned a quarter-of-a-century.

The horse that partnered Great Britain's Lee Pearson to three gold medals at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games has died at the age of 23.

Olympic gold medal winning basketball player Leo Gutiérrez has been given a Distinction of the Institution by the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) after his retirement from the sport.

It is August 25, 2004, in the Athens velodrome and I am all strapped-in in the media seats waiting for my first taste of track cycling.

Greece's economy may be as much in ruins as the Acropolis, but one of its wealthiest citizens still has more than enough euros in his back pocket to buy a football club in England.

Three athletes who believe they were cheated out of Olympic medals in the long jump event at Athens 2004 are calling for an investigation into the result to be launched after Russian competitors swept the podium.

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.