We hear much about the magic of sport, but after a week like this might it be worth reflecting on what has become of that other great sport of magic?

Usain Bolt was upstaged by training partner Yohan Blake at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne last night.

The world’s fastest man Usain Bolt has claimed he wants to try his hand at the long jump before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Usain Bolt has hit out at people who make claims about the use of performance enhancing drugs in athletics, and has “lost all respect” for former Olympic champion Carl Lewis.

Sebastian Coe insists that Usain Bolt is already a legend – despite the president of the International Olympic Committee stating the Jamaican sprinter will need to star at even more Games before he can attain that status.

Usain Bolt secured the legendary status he craved by becoming the first man to win the Olympic sprint double twice in succession on a historic night in London.

The mixed fortunes of our Irish competitors in the London Olympics has prompted me to write a defence of our most successful Olympian, Michelle Smith de Bruin.

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

US First Lady Michelle Obama today gave her own personal good luck message to Team USA ahead of tonight’s opening ceremony for the Olympics.

AS JOHN TREACY ran the finishing 100 metres of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic marathon, the RTÉ commentator, Jimmy Magee, listed 12 names.

Former Olympic champion Michael Johnson has cast doubt on Usain Bolt’s plans to win four gold medals in next year’s Olympic Games in London.

Usain Bolt smashed his own 100 metres world record by winning in 9.58 seconds to claim gold at the World Championships in Berlin.

RICKY SIMMS can pinpoint the day his life changed.

Olympic legend Carl Lewis has raised questions about Usain Bolt’s stunning sprint victories in Beijing last month because his native Jamaica does not enforce random drug tests.

Michael Johnson has congratulated Usain Bolt on breaking his 200m record and believes the Jamaican has taken his place among sprinting’s greats.

USAIN BOLT was overwhelmed after becoming the first man to win the Olympic sprint double for 24 years with his second amazing world record in five days in Beijing.

Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympic athlete of all time by claiming the 10th and 11th gold medals of his amazing career.

US SWIMMER Michael Phelps joined an elite list of Olympic greats by becoming only the fifth competitor in history to win nine gold medals.

American Michael Phelps equalled the record for the most Olympic gold medals in history by claiming his third at the 2008 Games on Tuesday.

World record-holder Usain Bolt wants to emulate Carl Lewis and win both the 100ms and his favoured 200m at the Olympics.

Seven-times world Formula One champion Michael Schumacher was awarded Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias award for sports today for his dazzling career in racing.

IN A sport where personality is hidden behind goggles and below the water mark, Ian Thorpe did virtually the impossible.

AMERICA’S Justin Gatlin earned his mantle among the greats of sprinting last night as he added the world 100 metres title to the Olympic crown he won last year.

JAMAICAN Asafa Powell set a new men’s 100m record of 9.77 seconds at the Athens Olympic Stadium last night The 22-year-old bettered American Tim Montgomery’s previous mark of 9.78, which he set in Paris three years ago.

LET’S first set aside the match essentials, shall we? I don’t blame the linesman at Old Trafford.

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.

The real heroes of the Cathal Lombard saga are the drug testers and, in spite of everything, the athlete himself also deserves credit for admitting his guilt.

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.

THE photographer is complaining. “It’s a disaster. He doesn’t know what he’s doing at all,” he says of Labour’s prospective MEP for East, Peter Cassells.

Tributes have been paid to Holland’s Fanny Blankers-Koen, regarded as the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, after her death today at the age of 85.

TAKE one debt-laden football club heading for administration, add your average Russian oil billionaire and suddenly the transfer market is buoyant again, Europe’s elite clubs have a serious rival and Chelsea fans are dreaming of the Premiership,Champions League and probably the Nobel Peace Prize as well.

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

NINE-TIME Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis has shrugged off the controversy surrounding his failed drug tests at the 1988 Olympic Trials.

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis has been arrested in California on suspicion of drink driving.

Carl Lewis heads the list of 19 American medallists who tested positive for drugs but were still allowed to compete at the Olympic Games in 1988.

IT’S not usually something you see in Stephen’s Green on your way to work. So, heads turned two or three times as, ground rumbling beneath their feet, Jonah Lomu walked by. The quizzical eyes in faces asked, “it’s not him, is it?”

Maurice Greene has scorched to a third successive 100 metres title at the World Championships in Edmonton.