For as long as athletes have been battling for gold medals, they have been taking fortifying tonics, some stomach-churning, others downright dangerous with little concern for their health.

A three-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) panel will have the final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Games, reviewing all decisions taken by the international federations, the IOC said on Saturday.

"My biggest dream at the Olympics is to win three gold medals again. That's my focus, that's what I want," Bolt says in an interview.

German sportswear firm Puma is not worried about the possible imminent retirement of Usain Bolt, the highest profile athlete it sponsors, believing the Jamaican sprinter could be just as valuable off the track.

The International Olympic Committee's decision to reject calls to ban all Russian competitors from the Rio Olympics could lead to "lesser protection for clean athletes," the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) says..

Brazil hold 10 presumed Islamist militants in isolation cells at a maximum security jail as police comb their computers and mobile phones for information about possible threats to next month's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Usain Bolt delivers on his top billing by winning the 200metres at the London Diamond League but he is upstaged for once as American sprint hurdler Kendra Harrison breaks one of the oldest world records in the book.

A further 45 athletes test positive for banned substances after a second set of samples were re-analysed from the London and Beijing Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport says it had rejected Russia's appeal against the exclusion of its track and field athletes from the Rio Games starting on August 5.

The report to be released Monday into allegations of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russia has already sparked rumblings it could trigger the "nuclear option" of a full ban of Russia from the Rio Olympics.

A Brazilian Islamist militant is plotting an attack against the French delegation at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the head of a French intelligence agency says.

The International Olympic Committee approve 'wild card' entries to the Olympic Games for two Bangladeshi athletes, Mahfuzur Rahman Sagor and Sonia Akhter Tumpa.

Parts of a mutilated body wash up on the sands of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, just meters (yards) from where beach volleyball athletes will compete in the upcoming Olympics.

Usain Bolt will embark on the first major test of what he plans to be a triumphant swansong Thursday as the Jamaican Olympic athletics trials get under way.

Rio de Janeiro's governor declares a state of financial emergency and requests federal funds to help fulfill obligations for public services during the Olympics that start August 5.

Russia's athletes should stay banned from international competition and not be allowed to take part in the Rio Games, says a leading Olympic official.

Scandal-hit Russia will likely discover Friday that it has not done enough to get back into world track and field's governing body, the IAAF, in time for its athletes to compete at the Rio Olympics.

Despite financial and organisational problems that have delayed other construction projects for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the largest athletes' village in the long history of the Games is unveiled in the city on Wednesday.

Scientists find dangerous drug-resistant "super bacteria" off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on August 5.

Selim Reza, a physically challenged boy from Kushtia, hoggs the limelight on the opening day of the 32nd National Junior (age-level) Athletics Championships despite finishing fourth in the high jump event at the Bangabadhu National Stadium.