Great Britain’s Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent won a mind-blowing nine Olympic gold medals between them, dominating rowing from Los Angeles in 1984 to Athens in 2004. Here, in the first of a new series featuring stars past and present analysing the enduring magic of the world’s greatest sporting spectacle, the titanic duo reveal how the Games have defined their lives.

Softball players such as Victoria Hayward have waited more than a decade for their sport to return to the Olympic stage. The Canadian believes that the world is going to fall in love with it at Tokyo 2020, that the matches will create one of the Games’ best atmospheres – and that the exposure can help more players into the professional game.

Podiums for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 medal award ceremonies to be manufactured using recycled plastic contributed by the public and recovered from the oceans in an initiative bringing together Worldwide Olympic Partner Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee.

In August 1948, the 30-year-old Fanny Blankers-Koen won an astonishing 11 races in eight days as she claimed four gold medals at the London Olympic Games and changed the perception of women’s sport forever. It is little wonder world-renowned Dutch athletics coach Charles Van Commenee labels his compatriot as the “greatest sports person we have ever produced as a nation”.

Killian Peier became Switzerland’s top ski jumper last winter, with a string of top 10 finishes in the World Cup, and a bronze medal on the large hill at the 2019 World Championships. He managed to overcome a huge disappointment: failing to qualify for the Games in PyeongChang in 2018. An ambassador for the YOG in Lausanne, he tells us about his career and explains how Swiss athletes will benefit from the renovation of the ski jump at Les Tuffes, in the French Jura.

The IOC today announced a collaboration with Tokyo-based Studio Ponoc to create an animated short film inspired by the Olympic values, to be released next year in the lead-up to the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo from 24 July to 9 August 2020. The project aims to share Olympic messages of hope and peace with a broad international audience, particularly young people, and to forge a powerful artistic legacy for animation fans across the globe.