Now that Thomas Bach has established passing the buck as an Olympic sport, Rio can get on with its Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016 - that’s the XXXI Olympic Games to the rest of us - with contributions from Mother Russia.

Leadership is a funny thing. I remember once at a G7 Summit, Ronald Reagan appeared so mentally absent that I engaged in a serious conversation with a top New York Times journalist over why his newspaper seemingly felt unable to convey this to its readers. Yet Reagan won the Cold War.

Rarely can the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have received as much criticism as it did across Western media this morning.

In what feels like a blink of an eye, we have gone an entire four year cycle from London 2012 to Rio 2016 to the point where the Olympic Games in Brazil are now less than two weeks away.

Usain Bolt is in a familiar position at the moment. The Jamaican is about to depart for Rio 2016 knowing adding yet more Olympic gold medals to his collection will take on further significance than merely reasserting his status as one of the best sprinters to ever take to the track.

And so the sporting world awaits the next move by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following the Court of Arbitration for Sport's upholding of the ban imposed on Russia’s track and field athletes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Sitting around in the welcome, if overdue, sunshine last weekend with half a dozen friends and neighbours, the conversation turned to the upcoming Olympic Games.

To paraphrase a cynic from a previous era: We’re at a crossroads in the war on doping alright, it’s just not the one everybody thinks we’re at.

Fifty days from now several hundred athletes and support staff from ParalympicsGB will march into the Maracana Stadium behind the Union Flag at the start of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.   

It has been another remarkable day in what has already been a remarkable year in the world of sport. Russia, represented by the vociferously defensive Sports Minister Vitaly "your allegations are absurd" Mutko, resolutely put to the sword in a 100-page World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report which pinned most of the blame on his shoulders and those of his deputy, Yuri Nagornykh.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) have been beating the drum repeatedly about having their mixed team relay event included as a discipline at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. If the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese organisers still were unaware of this, then the commentator at the ITU Mixed Relay World Championships made sure to hammer home the message. Tokyo 2020 was never far away from his lips.

Nearly a year ago, Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir gave an interview in which he said he wanted to be loved again as he prepared to make a return from a five-year ban for his involvement in the infamous spot-fixing scandal of 2010.

“Yes I can!”

For two remarkable forty-something track and field athletes, this has been a very exciting week - bringing each confirmation of a fifth Olympic appearance.