Sporting events in Russia are directly linked to the formation of a new Russian national idea and identity under Putin’s rule and have become an important tool in forming the narrative of the nation and establishing a meaningful relationship between the past, present and future, writes Stanis Elsborg in this analysis on sport and identity in Russia.

The example of the Freiburg University sports medicine department shows that Germany, the big sports nation, does not want to face its doping past. Andreas Strepenick takes readers through the story about how a decade-long fight to reveal a secret past in German sport got stuck.

For the past year, Jan Jensen from the Danish daily Ekstra Bladet and I have tried to figure out how far back systematised and state-controlled doping in Russia has been going on. What we found is quite disturbing.

Sport has united Korea in the past. But only for short periods of time and without securing lasting détente between North and South Korea. Asger Røjle Christensen describes previous and current attempts of sports diplomacy on the Korean peninsula.

David Rowe, professor from the Western Sydney University, looks into why it is so difficult to tackle “epidemic” sexism within sport, why sport is historically a male-dominated sphere and what can be done to counter it.

Focusing on the relations between João Havelange and the military regime in Brazil, this article elucidates how the longest serving president of FIFA rose to power.

Sunday 8 May 2016 marks the 100th birthday of one of the most impressive – and most troubling – figures in world sport, Brazilian João Havelange. We mark the day by publishing the story about how he rose to power in FIFA with the help of his country’s military dictatorship and a football icon named Pelé.

For nine years, a commission in Freiburg has investigated the sports legacy. Now, it has retired itself in protest. Will the doping secrets of West Germany ever come to light?