FORMER Olympic host cities are littered with “white elephants” built in the construction frenzy that precedes the Games, but Beijing is confident its sparkling venues will not meet the same fate.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have cleared the way for disgraced drugs cheat Marion Jones to be stripped of her Sydney Olympic Games medals by annulling all her results back to 2000.

Andy Murray has revealed he plans to go for gold for Great Britain at the Olympics in Beijing next year.

World athletics chiefs today formally charged Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou with missing drugs tests on the eve of the Olympic Games.

With the news that Cian O’Connor’s gold medal winning horse tested positive for a performance enhancing drug, the whole Irish Olympic experience of the 2004 Games in Athens is beginning to look like a fiasco.

The IOC today responded to rumours that a high-profile competitor at the Athens Olympics has failed a drugs test.

Just 24 hours after celebrating his 27th birthday, three-day eventer Niall Griffin will lead the Irish Olympic team in Friday's eagerly-awaited opening ceremony for the 2004 Games.

Three-time Olympian Sonia O'Sullivan rounded off her track preparations for the 2004 Games with an encouraging third-place run at the Weltklasse meet tonight in Zurich, Switzerland.

Triple Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent has been offered a seat on the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission.

Athens 2004 organizing committee president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki could be a target of left-wing Greek terrorists, according to a former Athens Olympics boss.

Olympics organisers and a Greek bank have agreed a $72m (£50m) sponsorship deal, one of the largest for the 2004 Games.

Environmentalists are planning a major protest campaign to stop Athens 2004 organizers from building an Olympic rowing centre on marshlands next to the ancient battleground of Marathon.