The build-up to the mile at the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver was more like a heavyweight world title fight than a running race.

In 2002, there was no bigger sportsman in the world than David Beckham, the England footballer who played for Manchester United and whose marriage to a Spice Girl made him an international icon just as likely to appear on the front pages of the newspapers as the back. 

Even now, more than 60 years after it happened, the grainy black-and-white newsreel footage is still painful to watch. 

Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female bouts have been effectively outlawed for most of the fight game's history, with officials refusing to sanction contests and most nations officially banning them.

Legend has it that the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were late for an official engagement at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch because she wanted to watch Precious McKenzie win his third consecutive gold medal in weightlifting.