American sports have always been a foreign country to me, so much so that whenever I visit the United States I am forced to change my newspaper reading habits. I grew up reading papers from the back, but when I go to the USA I start reading them from page one as .
The insularity of does not help either.
Yet this last week I have been fascinated by the insight the sports pages have provided me on how Americans run their sports.
For example, this weekend was dominated by .
Just over a year ago, when to £9.3 billion there was astonishment and almost total disbelief.
Soon after my story was broadcast I got a call from an insider who told me I had been spun a line. It was, he said, a game the Treasury was playing with the Department of Culture, Media and Sports.
Apparently, I should not have been fooled by such Whitehall inter-departmental machinations as the final figure would be nothing like what I had predicted.
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China’s plans to bring the torch relay back to London at the end of August, to mark this summer's Paralympics, will certainly meet with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from many in the Paralympic movement.
The Chinese plan, first broached with the British Paralympic Association last autumn, is that the torch will be lit in Beijing and then taken on a world tour, albeit a much modified and shorter version of the one followed by the controversial relay, which is now on its worldwide, multi-continent journey.
This second relay would see the torch go to cities which are to become Olympic cities in the next few years. That means paralympic torch relays in Vancouver, which will host the 2010 Winter Olympics, London, the 2012 summer Olympics, and Sochi, which will be the venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
There was a moment this week at a press conference held by International Olympic Committee president which was very revealing about both the Olympics and its ability to influence the debate about China's human rights which has been ignited by the torch protests.
This came after he had fielded many questions on China's human rights record, Tibet, the torch protests, whether there would be bloodshed in Tibet when the Chinese took the torch there and overall moral responsibility for what was happening in Tibet.
Then suddenly a journalist asked Rogge whether it was not strange that until that moment he had not been asked a single sports question - would it be alright if the journalist asked him a sports question?
As Rogge smiled for the first time and said, "What a good question" it was clear how relieved he was.
The shadow cast by 's human rights record over the Olympics has begun to worry the Olympic movement, particularly those in Europe.
On Sunday, even before the torch protests in London had gathered steam, members of the European Olympic committee met in Beijing.
I was told that strong views were expressed about the need for the Olympic movement to say something about China's human rights. The strongest views came from countries like and.
The Olympic torch, meant to promote peace and harmony, is now producing the sort of discord and anguish that I have rarely seen in an Olympic gathering, especially with a Games only four months away.
By this time, and with Beijing's preparations in terms of stadium and facilities having gone so well, the men and women who run the Olympics movement should have had every reason to feel satisfied.
They have taken the Olympics to a new frontier; the world's most populated country. Yes there will be problems - smog, traffic etc. But these have always been seen as manageable. After all every Olympics produces scare stories before the Games which often prove just that once the opening ceremony is held.
Yet talking to major figures in the Olympic movement, including senior members of the International Olympic Committee, it is clear the mood in the hotel in Beijing where they have gathered is actually one of intense nervousness.
, but what I found during an investigation into the problem in Poland was truly shocking.
And this in the country that will co-host the .
I found racism that was strident and in your face in a way it never was in Britain, even in the very bad old days of English football in the 1970s and 80s.
Then, as one of the regular football reporters at the , I spent my Saturdays at football matches and had several first-hand experiences of racism.
Much of it was very unpleasant. But in Poland it was on a different, deeper and much nastier level.
Gordon Brown's decision to welcome the on Sunday can be seen either as a bold move or a very foolhardy one by the Prime Minister given the controversy this relay has generated.
Brown is going to welcome the torch in some style. As it makes a loop round Downing Street on its journey from he will be outside No 10 surrounded by young sporting hopefuls who are expected to shine for Britain at the London 2012 Games.
In a sense it will be a recreation of the scene that marked the moment in Singapore in 2005 when London won the right to stage the Games.
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