Kenya's Faith Kipyegon produces a startling last-lap sprint to outpace favourite Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia to win the Olympic women's 1500m gold.

David Rudisha seals a historic Olympic 800m double as Shaunae Miller's audacious dive and Thiago Braz da Silva's pole vault gold for Brazil light up a wet Monday night in Rio.

The battle to be crowned world's fastest man takes centre stage at the Rio Olympics on Sunday with Usain Bolt facing another showdown with Justin Gatlin where the image of athletics will be on the line.

With crimson lipstick, eye-liner, mascara and a beaming smile, Michelle Carter wins a stunning Olympic shot put gold to sprinkle a little glitz on an event often cruelly ridiculed for the shape of its women athletes.

American teenager Lilly King celebrates stopping tainted Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova from getting an Olympic gold as doping hostilities worsen in Rio.

Shimmying amid a troupe of semi-naked samba dancers and wise-cracking with journalists, Usain Bolt is determined to bow out of the Olympics with a flourish.

A joyful sashay through Brazil's extraordinary musical heritage is infused with a social message and a warning over the dangers of climate change as Rio de Janeiro draws back the curtain of the 2016 Olympic Games with a highly charged opening ceremony.

Usain Bolt is promising to let American sprinter Justin Gatlin "feel his full wrath" as he zones in on an unprecedented treble-treble of gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

A sharp increase in police killings has cast "a shadow of death" over Rio de Janeiro as it prepares to host the Olympic Games, Amnesty International claim in a report.

For as long as athletes have been battling for gold medals, they have been taking fortifying tonics, some stomach-churning, others downright dangerous with little concern for their health.

A three-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) panel will have the final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Games, reviewing all decisions taken by the international federations, the IOC said on Saturday.

By his own charismatic admission, Usain Bolt is a living legend.

"My biggest dream at the Olympics is to win three gold medals again. That's my focus, that's what I want," Bolt says in an interview.

German sportswear firm Puma is not worried about the possible imminent retirement of Usain Bolt, the highest profile athlete it sponsors, believing the Jamaican sprinter could be just as valuable off the track.

The International Olympic Committee's decision to reject calls to ban all Russian competitors from the Rio Olympics could lead to "lesser protection for clean athletes," the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) says..

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) fails to demonstrate strong leadership on a sad day for clean sport when it declines to ban Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics, anti-doping officials say.

The Australian Olympic team refuses to move in to Rio de Janeiro's village for athletes, saying the accommodation are "not safe or ready" for next month's games.

Brazil hold 10 presumed Islamist militants in isolation cells at a maximum security jail as police comb their computers and mobile phones for information about possible threats to next month's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Usain Bolt delivers on his top billing by winning the 200metres at the London Diamond League but he is upstaged for once as American sprint hurdler Kendra Harrison breaks one of the oldest world records in the book.

A further 45 athletes test positive for banned substances after a second set of samples were re-analysed from the London and Beijing Olympics.