Twenty years ago today, the argument over the world’s fastest person would be settled once and for all with the meeting of Olympic sprint champions Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson at the hybrid distance of 150m. Robert O’Shea outlines what happened.

The race of the championships

A leading Irish racehorse trainer has been fined €6,000 for possession of steroids and other banned substances at his stables.

The body which regulates horseracing in this country is to study the ramifications of a court judgement which yesterday saw former Irish Grand National and Royal Ascot winning-trainer Pat Hughes convicted of possessing unauthorised animal remedies.

Usain Bolt has confirmed he plans to retire from athletics after the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

The inevitable admission of doping by Lance Armstrong has raised a whole series of issues for the UCI and sports administrators in general in the fight to keep sport clean.

If David Walsh’s long struggle tells you anything it’s to take a step back and not to drink the Kool-Aid; and question the hysteria at every turn.

Former sprinter Ben Johnson believes fellow drug cheat Lance Armstrong can be loved again by the American public.

Sunday Times journalist David Walsh said today he felt “a little bit of sympathy” for Lance Armstrong following the disgraced cyclist’s admission of drug-taking during his career.

For 17 days in July and August, we didn’t look at London through a prism of begrudgery and snorting derision, because they only put on the damn best show anyone could remember. (Ireland should try it sometime ...) Here’s the top ten memories of Olympics 2012

TWO weeks ago, in this column, I wrote about how a suspension of disbelief was required to make the most of watching the Olympic Games.

UNFORTUNATELY, enjoyment of the Olympic Games often requires something that one associates with screen or theatrical drama, or fiction: a suspension of disbelief.

“He was so far in front he could have sent a postcard to the other guys.” 

The Olympics involves 26 sports in various categories, but only a handful are must-sees, says Richard Fitzpatrick

Des O’Driscoll picks his highlights from the coming week’s TV schedule

Usain Bolt insists he is not offended by the cynics who will always question whether his amazing achievements are being achieved without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

IT is probably inevitable that we will be told that the Chinese are exploiting the Olympic Games for their own political purposes, as if the Americans, the Germans, the Russians, the British, or all the others had not done so already.

Ireland’s largest falconry centre opened today, as part of an ambitious plan to reintroduce the country’s previously extinct birds of prey back to the wild.

South African great Gary Player claims he is certain there are players in golf today taking drugs.

Coaching guru Frank Dick has expressed his disappointment and surprise at the news Olympic 100metres champion Justin Gatlin has tested positive for testosterone.

Disgraced Australia winger Wendell Sailor has spoken publicly for the first time since starting his two-year ban from rugby for testing positive for cocaine.

Pop star Robbie Williams and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay today unveiled their line-ups for Soccer Aid.

SHAMED sprinter Ben Johnson has claimed 40% of sportsmen are using performance-enhancing drugs.

Shamed sprinter Ben Johnson has claimed 40% of sportsmen are using performance-enhancing drugs.

The decision to ban American sprinters Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines for two years each has been hailed as “a great day for clean athletes” by the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

IN response to AF MacGabhann (Irish Examiner letters, Sept 16), let me point out that I am not a Michelle de Bruin apologist.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge used his opening Olympic address to remind the world’s athletes of the need to set an example - less that 24 hours before Greece’s most famous athletes face expulsion from their own team.

DURING the Cold War, governments used sport for political ends. The communists pointed to the successes of their athletes as proof of the superiority of their system.

CATHAL LOMBARD, the 28-year-old Cork runner, has acknowledged that he tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug, EPO.

Nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis has dismissed suggestions he ever took performance-enhancing drugs during his glittering career.

MARION JONES made an instant exit from yesterday’s Norwich Union British Grand Prix after insisting she has done everything to “clear my name” after being caught up in a drugs scandal in the United States.

ECCENTRIC Perugia president Luciano Gaucci has slammed two female footballers who snubbed his offer to make them the first women to play in Italy’s Serie A.

IT IS ironic that a word as cumbersome as tetrahydrogestrinone should be the name of a drug so easy to digest.

ITALIAN club Perugia is courting the star of Sweden’s World Cup women’s football team Victoria Svensson apparently to play in the Serie A.

BEN JOHNSON has been voted the worst sporting cheat of all time for the 1998 drugs scandal that saw him stripped of his Olympic gold medal.

Canadian sprinter Venolyn Clarke, who finished eighth in her World Championships 100 metres quarter-final on Sunday, competed while still unaware she had failed a drugs test.