Over the past few months, the IOC's Ethics and Compliance team has been on the road a lot, working with a number of key stakeholders on enhancing integrity in sport, and there is more to come soon. In this section, you can learn more about the current or upcoming activities and check out what happened at recent events.

By George Hirthler

Kayaker Birgit Fischer won her first Olympic gold medal aged 18. Twenty-four years later, aged 42, she won her eighth. The German record-setter is undoubtedly one of the greatest athletes of all-time and her story is well worth listening to.

Pamela Rosa is desperate to compete at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and be the kind of role model she never had as a young, female skateboarding fanatic growing up on the tough, inner-city streets of south-eastern Brazil.

Japanese wrestler Kaori Icho is the only woman to have won four consecutive individual Olympic gold medals in the same discipline. A superstar in Japan, she remains undefeated at the Games since women’s freestyle wrestling was included on the programme at Athens 2004, and she intends to continue this run by doing everything she can to rise to challenge number five: victory on home soil at the Tokyo Games!

The 2019 World Championships in Gwangju once again demonstrated Russia's relentless dominance in artistic swimming. Led by the two Svetlanas — Kolesnichenko and Romashina — the squad won all nine events in which they competed, making them the sure favourite for the discipline's two gold medals (team and duet) at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

A symbol of new-found peace after the global conflict of 1914-1918 which had left Europe in ruins, the Games of the VII Olympiad in Antwerp in 1920 were the setting for exploits by legendary champions, but also an opening ceremony that made its mark in the history of the great sports gathering imagined by Pierre de Coubertin. The Olympic flag was flown for the first time, and Belgium’s Victor Boin pronounced the first athletes’ oath.

Almost every major sports fan in the world knows swimmer Michael Phelps won a gasp-inducing eight Olympic gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Games, but far fewer will recall that the record-setting haul would never have happened without the super-human efforts of USA teammate Jason Lezak. Here, the relay specialist reflects on his role in one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history.

Hicham El Guerrouj believes his character was defined by his Olympic experiences, after he overcame crushing lows to realise his long-held dream of making his mark on Moroccan history by becoming a double Olympic champion.