For Betkil Shukvani, leaving the London Olympics without a medal was disappointment enough, especially when Georgian officials failed to defend his complaint about an unfair ruling in his final judo match. Then he threatened by officials who resented his open allegiance to opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Afghanistan's only female Olympian does not expect to win a medal, but says the opportunity to compete in London is worth more than gold.

Georgian judo star Varlam Liparteliani is competing in his first bouts at the London Olympics on August 1. Every day, the 23-year-old athlete shares his impressions with RFE/RL's Georgian Service about life behind the scenes at the world's biggest sporting event. These are his impressions from July 31 as he prepared for his first matches.

If a national team's boxer boxes in London and no officials from the Olympic delegation are there to watch it, did the fight ever happen?

Vlade Divac led the Yugoslav team to gold medals in the 1990 and 2002 World Basketball Championships and silver medals in the 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympics.He is also one of only two European players to play more than 1,000 NBA games and to have his number retired by an NBA team. Divac, who is now president of the Serbian Olympic Committee, spoke to RFE/RL Balkan Service correspondent Zoran Glavonjic.

The Soviet Union is dead, long live the Soviet Union!

The Olympics are supposed to be about winning and good sportsmanship. But things aren't always that clean-cut. Here we look at some of the game's more notorious moments and figures.

In playing at the London Olympics, Varvara Lepchenko will fulfill a lifelong dream and cap a journey that began a world away in her native Uzbekistan.

The International Olympic Committee has never given cash prizes to medalists. But many countries are now promising lucrative bonus awards to their athletes who win Olympic medals at London 2012.

Changing passports to compete for another country has long been common practice among athletes. But as the Olympic Games prepare to kick off, the incidences are growing.

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London take place during Islam's holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required to fast and refrain from drinking water from sunrise to sunset. How will Muslim athletes cope?

The mob called for his death; people spared no creativity in the ways in which they hoped he would be raped in prison.