A week ago, as British political life descended into ever greater depths of weirdness and Euro 2016 geared up for the semi-final matches, the conclusions of a report that could have an important bearing on Paris’s chances of hosting the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics started to circulate.

Coverage of doping stories in sport this year has felt at times like being stuck in some sort of endless time-warp. 

In less than one month the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games will be declared open. 

Has anyone managed to figure Nick Kyrgios out yet? Inspired one minute, insipid the next, the Australian has divided opinion like no other in his sport in recent memory.

Wednesday was considered by many to be one of the best days in the history of Wimbledon to have tickets to Centre Court at the All-England Club, with two classic men’s quarter-final matches having unfolded. Handily, I was sat inside Court One.

How long will the lyrics of "Three Lions" need updating? The "30 years of hurt" referred to in the Skinner/Baddiel/Lightning Seeds song that was an aural backdrop to the 1996 European football Championships are about to become "50 years of hurt" - and counting - as the anniversary of those fabled 1966 World Cup finals, in which England claimed the trophy on home soil, falls this Sunday.

Sport business commentators have been known to argue that live, in-venue audiences are of dwindling importance to the biggest sports event owners; I might even have done so myself.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, aka SPOTY, is still some six months away yet the London bookmakers William Hill have already installed the Olympic and International Boxing Federation (IBF) world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua as 4-1 favourite to pick up the gong.

We seem to have spent most of the last year writing continually about what is wrong with sport. Doping and corruption, mostly, as well as the various problems stalling preparations for Rio 2016, which have faced another setback this week after a dead body was found floating ominously close to the Copacabana Bay beach volleyball venue.

The Zika virus has had no adverse effects on the test events for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and preventive actions against the mosquito that transmits the virus are securely in place.

It is a decision which managers, coaches and executives across a range of industries often battle with - when exactly is the right time to step away and move on to pastures new?

While Euro 2016 meanders towards a close, with the bloated tournament having never really sparked into life, the somewhat chaotic and always eventful Tour de France is set to compete for centre stage across the host nation.

The threshold is a clear one, between marble tiles and parquet flooring. The door stands ajar, its brass nameplate proclaiming “Salle Greard.” On June 23 1894, Baron Pierre De Coubertin and a group of invited delegates walked in over this threshold deep within the Sorbonne University buildings and, later in the day, out over it. During which time the International Olympic Committee, and the modern Games, were born.

Is it because we are islanders? Or something to do with the residue of empire? Or something else altogether?