When Tokyo was picked as the 1964 Olympic host, there was a tiny hurdle. Language. Japanese was largely unintelligible to most outside the country. The need to communicate with international visitors led to the first systematic use of wordless icons at the Olympics – pictograms. A team of designers led by Masaru Katsumi and graphic designer Yoshiro Yamashita conceived symbols to convey each sport – Minimalist, & with human forms in motion. The idea of a picture-based language may have drawn inspiration from the symbol-based Japanese Kanji writing system.

Bhavani Devi’s Olympic qualifiers are done, she lives a two-hour drive away from Paris & the Games are in little over two months. But she is not going to be in it. It’s a reality the Indian sabre fencer is struggling to come to terms with.

+ “It’s really painful,” Bhavani told @htTweets, “It’s not easy to just forget and focus on the next competition. I’m trying. I’m trying to let it pass.” Since her debut at the Tokyo Olympics, the 30-year-old Indian has moved countries, switched coaches & barely visited home.

"We were a team of three introverts. As crazy as it sounds, I was the chattiest person in the group."

Indian GM P Harikrishna assisted recently crowned women's chess world champion Ju Wenjun in the match. Their collaboration arrived as surprise news.

For @htTweets The 37 yr-old Indian GM and China’s Ju, go back a long way. They have been Shanghai teammates in the Chinese chess league. In Harikrishna's first season with the side in 2008, they finished as champions.

"Until early last year, the top guys saw me a prospect. Now, I'm a colleague, maybe even a rival.”

Ahead of Fide World Cup, India's 17 yr-old chess superstar Gukesh, youngest-ever to cross 2750 Elo, spoke to me on goals, records & regrets and why he loves Djokovic
For @htTweets @vishy64theking on Gukesh: "2750 is a huge accomplishment. It’s quite clear that at some point he might just shoot past me. I’m quite relaxed about it, even proud. To wake up one day and realise I'm not the No 1 rated player in India might be a funny feeling.”