You may have heard by now about Frankie Boyle’s tweets during the Paralympic Games opening ceremony on Wednesday night and, in particular, his crack about how the Saudi Arabian team consists mostly of thieves.

BEFORE there was a Twitter, camera, or even a telegraph, the results of the Olympics were transmitted via carrier pigeon.

JOHN JOE JOYCE impressed on his move into the welterweight division when he outpointed Golden Gloves champion, Quintin Fortune of the NYPD, at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork on Saturday night, where a Garda/Rylane Boxing Club selection hosted team from the New York Police Department at a sell-out dinner show.

Everyone in the Laoshan Velodrome was ready to usher Chris Hoy into the company of Olympic greats – except the Scot himself.

Three further athletes - 400 metres hurdler Michelle Carey, marathon runner Pauline Curley and 800 metres specialist Thomas Chamney - have today been added to the Irish Olympic team for next month's Games in Beijing.

The athletics coach at the centre of the BALCO scandal is expected in a United States district court in San Francisco today.

International Olympic chiefs have declared their intention to join the fight against illegal betting on sports events.

Marion Jones has been formally stripped of her five Olympic medals, but the IOC have postponed a decision on whether her relay team-mates will lose their medals.

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.

IAAF president Lamine Diack believes disgraced American sprinter Marion Jones will be remembered as “one of the biggest frauds in sporting history”.

Australia’s swimming superstar Ian Thorpe has announced his immediate retirement from the sport at the age of 24.

IT is easy to forget that only two years ago, Olive Loughnane was the 12th fastest female race-walker in the world over 20k. But the statistic seemed to get lost in the hysteria after her team-mate and friend Gillian O’Sullivan claimed a world championship silver in Paris.

Former world and Olympic champion Gabriela Szabo has confirmed her retirement.

Marion Jones will compete in the Grand Prix Regione Lombardia in Milan on June 1 despite reports she would not be invited to compete in European meetings.

Marion Jones will compete in the Grand Prix Regione Lombardia in Milan on June 1 despite reports she would not be invited to compete in European meetings.

Greek coach Christos Tzekos took the blame today for the drugs scandal which engulfed the Olympic Games as his star athletes Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were cleared.

The new home of the Olympic movement in Ireland marks a milestone for the future of sport, it was claimed today.

TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to renowned Irish showjumper Paul Darragh, who died of a suspected heart attack.

Tributes were paid today to renowned Irish showjumper Paul Darragh, who died of a suspected heart attack.

Multiple swimming world record holder Ian Thorpe believes athletics would not be embroiled in the ongoing Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) drugs scandal if officials had dealt with the drugs issue earlier.

Two Olympians, a national swimming record holder and a champion hang glider will represent Ireland in an international sports event in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil next month.

Two Paralympic athletes from Azerbaijan have been banned for life after failing drugs tests at the Athens Paralympics, organisers announced today.

Osleidys Menendez shattered the Olympic record to win the women’s javelin title in Athens tonight.

AMERICAN Shawn Crawford won the men’s 200 metres gold medal amid astonishingly hostile scenes in the Olympic Stadium as the Greek public vented their spleen against the Games organisers.

SONIA O'SULLIVAN will not run on the track again this season and could opt to retire after her disappointing display in the 5,000m final.

Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan has said she will not run on the track again this season and could opt to retire after her disappointing display in the 5,000 metres final of the Olympic Games.

A search of a warehouse used by the coach at the centre of a doping scandal involving Greece’s star sprinters uncovered small amounts of anabolic steroids. a government agency said.

The Olympics’ top medical guru has praised weightlifting’s attempts to stamp out the drug cheats.

A senior prosecutor launched an investigation today into two disgraced Greek sprinters who withdrew from the Athens Olympics after missing a drugs test and were involved in a mysterious motorcycle accident hours later.

THE Olympic Games returned to their spiritual home yesterday in a breathtaking opening ceremony that brought the myths of Ancient Greece to life through the magic of 21st century technology.

World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound warned potential Olympic cheats that his organisation is making huge strides at the “beginning of a whole new era” in the fight against drugs in sport.

German archer Cornelia Pfohl will compete in the Olympics despite being 30 weeks pregnant.

The International Olympic Committee were today forced to address the “dark and sordid side of sport” as allegations of corruption, the potential expulsion of two members and the on-going doping debate made for an eventful first morning at the Executive Board meeting in Athens.

THE Olympic Council of Ireland may extend their qualification deadlines for the Athens Games, according to OCI President Pat Hickey.

An interesting exchange is expected this morning when Flora London Marathon race director David Bedford and top British star Jon Brown come face to face.

JOHN CAPEL of the United States rescued American sprinting pride as he led home a 1-2 in the men’s 200 metres world final last night.

The prospect of a big-money domestic showdown between Audley Harrison and Frank Bruno grew last night after the latter officially applied for the re-instatement of his British Boxing Board of Control licence.

IRISH athletes will not have to endure the same bitterness, rancour and open back-biting which soured the aftermath of the Sydney Olympics, Irish Sports Council chief John Treacy pledged yesterday.

THE Athletes Commission, set up to give international sports people a greater role in the affairs of the Olympic Council of Ireland, has been disbanded by the executive council of the OCI.

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

Sonia O'Sullivan has confirmed that she will run in the Ballycotton 10K event on June 24.

The International Olympic Committee has agreed to issue accreditation to web-based news media to cover the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Retiring track legend Michael Johnson has revealed he will not be competing in this year's World Championships.