A doping ban can leave a permanent scar on the career of an athlete.   Take two British runners:  Dwain Chambers and Linford Christie. 
Christie - accused of cheating - was one of the superstars of British Track and Field.   His career was permanently tarnished, highlighted by his absence in all things in and around the London 2012 bid.  But now London is beckoning his return as the great and the good line up to say that Mr Christie is key to the future success of Team GB.   Talks continue on his role as a potential coach for British sprinters. 
This coincides with the very recent return to the sprinting world by Dwain Chambers following a two year ban shortly after he ran the fastest 100 metres in the world.
These two events are a sign of a well-needed injection of talent into a British team which has only performed badly in recent international competition. 
Jamaican joint world record holder, Asafa Powell- who supports a life-time ban for drug cheats - believes that Chambers should be grateful for another chance; but it is the speedy return of Chambers to the international 'circuit' which is of most interest to to the sports world.  The IAAF (the athletics sports federation) is not only demanding   that Chambers helps in the Federation's fight against doping, but the organization is also insisting that he pays back around US $250,000 of prize money as a penalty for testing positive for the performance enhancing steroid THG in 2003.  

Whatever happened to the blue collar caddy in the US?  When black players were allowed into the PGA Tour in 1961 - ending the white-only clause - it started a rush of black players.  And twenty years ago, there were nearly a dozen on the tour.  But now there is only Tiger - and although Tiger may have inspired a young generation of golfers, there is little evidence that black talent has found its way into the very top levels of golf.
One reason for this is the prohibitive cost of joining the best country clubs in the USA; but this does not provide an explanation for the disappearance of the black caddie.  Or does it? 
It was the possibility of caddying at these elite clubs that gave black players access to the blue-blooded world of golf which facilitated their path from working class kid to elite golfer. 
But somewhere on the way from rags to riches, the craft of caddying became white collar.  Once the best friend, counselor and advisor of every golfer, it is only the poor man who doesn't prefer his global positioning device aided golf cart to a colleague on two legs. 
Tiger Woods may have inspired a nation, but at the same time he appears to have also claimed the first prize in the 'exception proves the rule' theory of equality.

Love tennis but really can't play that well? Enjoy travel and five star accommodation to exotic destinations? Why not take up a career in referring? One of the most successful and well qualified referees on the international tennis circuit in is Fergus Murphy. One of a handful of full-time professionals with the ATP, Murphy was inspired by John McEnroe when he played in Ireland in 1981.
He now works around thirty weeks of the year (around 300 matches) and is allowed to freelance outside of the ATP and work independently at the majors such as Wimbledon.
On court this year during the first week of Wimbledon, Andy Roddick threw his tennis racquet at Murphy. According to Murphy, "If you want to be an umpire you have to have a sense of fairness and be able to think quickly under pressure and not get intimidated. Roddick was obviously sending me a message when he threw his racquet and if it had hit the umpire's chair or got any closer I would have taken different action..." At the press conference after the match Roddick's response to his own behavior was equally 'reasonable'! "I just tried to calm down as much as possible. I reminded myself that talking to him probably wouldn't - I mean, it wasn't going to change anything at that point. Probably, if I would have heard his reasoning, it probably would have pissed me off even more. So, you know, I guess I just tried to mellow out. I'm thankful my racquet didn't roll into the chair when I threw it."
Skills required to be successful in this chosen career include: 20:20 vision (with or without glasses/lenses); ability to multi task - watching the players, the ball, the crowd, the photographers, the ball boys and line calls etc.; and ensuring that nothing distracts the players. At the top of his career, Murphy earns enough to keep doing it, but he added that the alternative job would have been to become a barrister "and I probably would have earned a little more......". 

One of the great and most recent innovations of sport and one which is much favored by the media is 'Hawk-Eye'.  First introduced to the game of cricket and followed closely by tennis, Hawkeye facilitates those moments when all eyes watch the screen to see whether or not the ball would have hit the stumps in cricket or gone outside the line in tennis. Whether you are the linesman, umpire or referee; whether you are a spectator inside the stadium or a TV viewer - all eyes are on the same thing: the innovative ball tracking technology system which takes the human element out of the sports equation.
Wisden, the owner of the historic cricket almanac has acquired Hawk-Eye from the UK media group Tinopolis for close to US$10 million.
Tinopolis owns Sunset + Vine the production company behind the UK TV Channel Four's coverage of cricket; and the company recently acquired Television Corporation which owns UK programmes such as Question Time. The owner of Wisden - Mark Getty (son of Sir Paul Getty) plans to develop his popular media tool by developing associated Hawk-Eye products and by expanding into new sports which could include both soccer and baseball.

For some athletes after retirement they turn to a career in media; for others their dream is to manage the new talent; and for some it is ownership of a sports team that takes their fancy.
Michael Jordan represents the all-rounder.  His latest venture is as an investor in the N.B.A.  And although his return to basketball is hardly unexpected; as the second largest individual shareholder in the North Carolina based, Charlotte Bobcats, Jordan will also have authority to oversee all the players personnel decisions as well as all basketball operations.
Jordan's previous return to the NBA ended in a sour, note when after three years he parted company with the Washington Wizards during which time he 'enjoyed' the role of both player and manager. However, according to Bobcats majority owner, Robert L. Johnson, there is no chance that Jordan will be playing for his team!

When the stakes are SO high, it is hardly surprising that every Olympic Games is fraught with high-level corruption and Beijing is no exception. 
Infrastructure and venue development are two of the major project categories that often come under scrutiny. 
Beijing's ambitions to 'redesign' most of the city in time for the 2008 Games have raised the stakes; and with the potential for such huge projects to be in the hands of a just a few, it is the scale of the investment - an estimated US $35 billion - that has been seen as the source of the alleged financial irregularities.
And as a result, the likely outcome of such a scandal may ultimately lead to a scale-back of the Chinese city's very ambitious short term objectives.

October 1, 2006: Netherlands, Circuit Park Zandvoort
October 8, 2006: Czech Republic, Auto Motodrom Brno
November 5, 2006: China, Beijing
November 26, 2006: Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit
December 16, 2006: United Arab Emirates, Dubai Autodrome
January 21, 2007: New Zealand, Taupo (venue tbc)
February 4, 2007: Australia, Sydney
February 25, 2007: South Africa, Durban (street race)
March 11/18, 2007: South/North America
March 25, 2007: Mexico
April 8, 2007 (tbc): Indonesia
April 15, 2007: China, Shanghai International Circuit
April 29, 2007: Great Britain, Brands Hatch