By Mike Rowbottom

The pole bearing the Azerbaijan flag, set at the shoreline of a city known as the Pearl of the Caspian, is a testament to a young nation's high ambition. When it was constructed, this pole - at 162 metres - was the tallest in the world (a distinction now claimed by neighbouring Tajhikistan which duly installed a version that is three metres higher). Its flag is the size of a football pitch.

This expansive symbol of a country which celebrated 23 years of independence from the Soviet Union yesterday (October 18) stands just along the seafront from a huge construction site that, come June next year, will host key elements of the inaugural European Games.

Since committing Baku as host of that new venture in December 2012, President Ilham Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, chair of the Baku 2015 Operation Committees, have overseen a drive to do in 30 months what host cities normally require seven years to complete.

By Mike Rowbottom

There was a palpable sense of excitement and energy within the chandeliered halls and corridors of the Palace Hotel in Tokyo on Friday (October 10). Stern, watchful men in dark suits, heeding instructions arriving via electronic earpieces, testified to the fact that some very important people had gathered for a unique moment of celebration within Japanese sport, as the nation both reflected upon the 50th anniversary of the Tokyo 1964 Games, and outlined its aspirations for the Olympics which the city will host again in 2020.

One of several exhibitions in the city of memorabilia from those first Asian Olympic Games is located just inside the entrance to the Marunouchimoru building near to the gardens of the Imperial Palace. Among items including a red Japanese team blazer, a panelled leather football, the kind of lighter one used to require to start gas cookers (just in case the torch required some persuasion on its journey, presumably) and banks of fading programmes, one of the prize exhibits is a replica of the cauldron that held the Olympic flame during that fortnight of competition in October 1964.

The death a month before these Anniversary celebrations of Yoshinori Sakai, who lit that Olympic cauldron on October 10, robbed this occasion of a guest of honour. His passing was widely mourned in Japan.

By David Owen

In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa and Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Cold War over, Germany was reunited. Mobile phones were just starting to get smaller and become more widespread, but the World Wide Web, as a paradigm-shifting, transformational force, was still a few years away. Satellite television company Sky and rival BSB agreed to merge as BSkyB; it was another two years before the breakaway English Premier League was formed and Sky signed its landmark £304 million ($485 million/€388 million) deal for live coverage.

Nineteen Ninety was also the year when 64 participants, including Juan Antonio Samaranch, the late former International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, and 82 companies from 19 countries assembled in Monaco for the very first Sportel conference.

It all seems like so long ago. That inaugural event was attended by two athletes celebrated then, but whom most of us today would struggle to place. Jean-Charles Trouabal and Bruno Marie-Rose were half of the French 4x100 metres relay squad who had recently broken the world record - a feat achieved in Split, which, in another sign of the times, was then still in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

By Mike Rowbottom

Before being elected for a fourth and final term as President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) - which celebrated its silver anniversary last Monday (September 22) - Sir Philip Craven faced an initially surprising challenge in the form of fellow Briton Alan Dickson, who was nominated by the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA).

Speaking to insidethegames shortly before the vote in Athens on November 24 last year, Sir Philip commented: "I have a rival. The surprise is no longer there. That's fine. There will be a fight, and as a fairly tough ex-wheelchair basketball player I am more than ready for that."

Sir Philip, now 64, won that particular fight hands down by 127 votes to 20.  This native of Bolton, Lancashire had demonstrated his "fairly tough" qualities very clearly at the age of 16 when he overcame the trauma of losing the use of his legs after a rock climbing accident.

By Mike Rowbottom

Nearly a year on from replacing Pat McQuaid as President of the International Cycling Union (UCI), Brian Cookson maintains that, under his guidance, cycling is now "the leading sport in terms of anti-doping".

The Briton's appointment - by a vote of 24-18 in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence on September 27 - brought an end to the controversial eight-year reign of his 65-year-old opponent, a period that was scarred by doping scandals, most notably involving American seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, and by allegations of corruption.

In 2012, "Flower of Scotland" rang around the Olympic Stadium as a children's choir performed traditional music from all four nations of the United Kingdom at London's Olympic Opening Ceremony.

When Team GB entered later, the flag was proudly carried by four-time Olympian Sir Chris Hoy. Already the most successful Scot, victory in men's keirin and team sprint gave him an unprecedented six gold medals in a stellar career, the most bemedalled British Olympian of all time. Now a special locker at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow contains his cycling kit. It is of course, painted gold.

Sir Chris was not the only Scot to shine in 2012. Rower Heather Stanning was born in Yeovil but grew up in Lossiemouth. She attended Gordonstoun school before joining the army and won Britain's first gold medal of the Games in the pairs with Helen Glover. Later in the week, Glaswegian Katherine Grainger partnered Anna Watkins to an emotional victory in the double sculls. Grainger's Olympic career began a dozen years before. She won three silver medals and then at last came gold. "I'm prepared to go around the country until people are sick of the sight of me and my gold medal," she said.

By Mike Rowbottom

The Volleyball Men's World Championship currently underway in Poland has been described by Ary Graça, President of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) as a "launchpad" for the sport towards the Rio 2016 Olympics. On that reckoning, the flight of the good ship volleyball appears to be straight and true to the heart of Brazil - which probably appreciates the sport as much as any other country in the world.

There was an element of fantasy attached as Graça took up his current position in September 2012 - the FIVB Congress at which the vote took place was held at Anaheim's Disneyland Hotel. Needing a 50 per cent plus one majority, the then 69-year-old Brazilian recorded 103 out of the 204 eligible votes to become the fourth President in the Federation's history following Paul Libaud of France (1947-1984), Rubén Acosta of Mexico (1984-2008) and Jizhong Wei of China (2008-2012).

Since that triumphant moment in the United States, Graça - a former player who has most recently served as President of the Brazil Volleyball Federation - has attempted to revolutionise the sport after what he sees as a long period in which it has pursued some misguided strategies.

There are few World Championships in the world bigger than that of basketball's. In fact, there may be only one - the FIFA World Cup. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) wants to change that, however.

The gold and silver medallists in the triple jump at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne both left their mark, in their own way, in sporting history.

In the second round there was a huge shock when Vilhjálmur Einarsson broke the Olympic record with a leap of 16.26 metres. His lead lasted only two rounds but Einarsson, in finishing second, became Iceland's first medallist and was thereafter known as "the silver man". He was so popular for his achievement that he was five times voted Iceland's sportsperson of the year. He later became a headmaster and a talented landscape artist.

The Brazilian who beat him, Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, had artistic tendencies too. In 1959 he played the role of Death in the film Orfeu Negro, which took an ancient Greek legend and set it in a twentieth-century favela. Orfeu Negro won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Oscar for best foreign-language film.

By David Owen

A world-weary sigh invaded the cafeteria. An Olympic media veteran was contemplating another slab-like cheese (or was it spinach?) pie. "In Moscow they gave us caviar vol-au-vents," he groaned with Chekhovian whimsy.

The Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games did not get everything right. But given the unseemly rush to be ready, and persistent doubts over whether an economy the size of Greece could truly cope with the monstrous scale of a 21st century Olympics, they were an unmitigated, enchanting triumph.

Britain went briefly badminton-potty; the footballers of Iraq inspired their war-weary nation by winning through to the semi-finals precisely 252 days after the capture of Saddam Hussein; and, in the open-air pool, we thrilled to the exploits of Thorpe, Phelps, Van den Hoogenband, Lochte, Hackett, Katajima and Peirsol in a men's swimming competition for the ages.

By Mike Rowbottom

Significant anniversaries of two great foot races fall either side of this weekend - races won by two Britons who, through their performances on these and other occasions, have earned timeless renown in world athletics.

Tomorrow will be exactly 30 years since Sebastian Coe became the first man to defend the Olympic 1500 metres title as he finished just under a second clear of his domestic rival, world champion Steve Cram, following one of the most remorseless demonstrations of willpower ever witnessed on the track.

And Thursday (August 7) marked the 60th anniversary of what has come be known as the "Miracle Mile" at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, a race in which Britain's Roger Bannister, who earlier in the year had become the first man to break four minutes, showed similar determination to overcome the challenge of John Landy, the Australian who had bettered his landmark time a month later.

By Philip Barker

The city of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina has sweet and bitter memories for the Olympic Movement. In 1984, the XIV Winter Games proved a fortnight of tremendous charm and wonderful sport. Tragically, civil war soon ravaged the city and at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Juan Antonio Samaranch was forced to make a plea for peace at the Opening Ceremony.

Happily, tranquillity has now returned to the region but the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, had unleashed World War One, the most terrible conflict the world had ever seen. Tomorrow marks the centenary of when Great Britain declared war on Germany, with fighting continuing until the November 11, 1918 - Armistice Day. Millions died, many were sportsmen and at least 160 had competed in the Olympic Games.

Hungarian fencer Béla Zulawszky was killed in action in Sarajevo itself. He had won silver in the sabre at the London Olympics of 1908 at the age of 39. A career soldier in the army of the Austro Hungarian Empire, he had reached the rank of captain and was killed in action a day after his birthday in October 1914. His team mate Béla Békessy also died on the front in 1916. He had competed in foil, epee and sabre at the Stockholm 1912 Games where he had won the silver medal.

By David Owen

Today the Olympic Movement is well established as the most powerful, and one of the best-resourced, sports organisations the world has seen. But it has not always been that way.

Thirty years ago, political pressure and inept commercial management had weakened it to the point where its very existence was under threat. What then enabled the Five Rings to check out of intensive care and embark on the path to complete recovery? A few things, but one of the most efficacious tonics was without doubt the unexpected success of the Games the 30th anniversary of whose Opening Ceremony falls on July 28: Los Angeles 1984.

Earlier this year, insidethegames was privileged to be granted an extended interview by the man chiefly responsible for Tinseltown's unlikely Olympic triumph. Peter Ueberroth's personal Olympic odyssey took him from the lobby of a bank where he opened an account with $1,000 (£589/€745) of his own money to the cover of Time magazine. As a plot line, it might have been scripted by Hollywood. In the annals of sports business management, it is the equivalent of Diego Maradona's virtuoso performance - OK, minus the Hand of God incident - at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, or perhaps the barefoot Abebe Bikila winning the Olympic Marathon in 1960 in Rome.

By David Owen

If anyone is in a position to comprehend what International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach is seeking to achieve with his reform-minded Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative, it is Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, President of the 35-year-old Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).

Since his election as only the second ANOC President in Moscow in April 2012, the 50-year-old member of the ruling family of Kuwait has been overseeing a far-reaching programme of reforms that are reinvigorating the body responsible for protecting and advancing the interests of the 200-plus National Olympic Committees (NOCs).

Changes have included updating the constitution - ensuring for example that a General Assembly would be held every year, overseeing a soon-to-be-completed move of ANOC's headquarters to new modern premises in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, and establishing nine commissions and working groups charged with identifying and solving pressing issues facing NOCs.

By Terrence Burns

We are a little less than four-years away from the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

This is a story, just one of many, of their bid's path, culminating in victory almost three years ago in Durban, South Africa.

Much is being written and read in the current media about prospective bid cities for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. A lot of the commentary pertains to "consultants". Much of the commentary is ill informed or naive at best, or wrong, spiteful and even defensive at worst.