Is it time to make doping in athletics a criminal offense?

Kip Keino, one of the greatest living legends of track and field, believes so.

And he's not the only one.

London Olympic 1,500-meter champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya supports this bold initiative in their homeland.

"Doping is a serious matter. It needs to be tackled hard," Kiprop told Reuters in a recent interview. "My proposal is if an athlete is found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs to gain something, such an athlete is an offender and needs to be punished by law and go to prison as a lesson for those who want to do the same.

"This is about individual athletes and they must be held accountable for their actions."

There's a reason for the urgent tone of Kiprop's comments. There's been an increase in the number of Kenyan athletes who have tested positive for banned drugs — 26 individuals in 2014, including in December, when Rita Jeptoo, who has captured Chicago and Boston marathon titles over the past two years "tested positive for a banned substance in a B sample taken after she failed an out-of-competition check in September," Reuters reported.

Keino, the 1972 Munich Olympic 3,000-meter steeplechase champion and gold medalist in the 1,500 at the 1968 Mexico City Games, has requested a meeting with Hassan Wario, Kenya's sports minister, and other government officials for the purpose of asking them to craft legislation.

The proposed message? Legislation that "could include prison terms for coaches or agents who encouraged drug use," according to Reuters.

"The reputation of our sportsmen and women has been tainted beyond any imagination. Kenya is risking sanctions from international competition because international organizations think we are not addressing the problem in line with world best practice," Keino told Reuters.

In an interview with Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation, William Ruto, Kenya's deputy president, said that the nation "has stood out for decades, since the 1960s when Ben Jipcho, Kipchoge (Kip) Keino and many others were involved in sports and we never had instances of doping."

He added: "We have natural talent and it should not be corrupted by people looking for short cuts, and most of the explanations we are getting from Athletics Kenya are associated with some of the managers of our sportsmen. It is my sincere hope that those behind the doping problem are reined in as early as now so that it does not get to a situation where they ruin our sportsmen and women or even ruin our status as a country."

Keino, an IOC honorary member who was in Japan for the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka, issued a stern warning to those supporting and endorsing doping in sports.

"I want to particularly warn any coach or medical officials against abetting drug abuse," he told the Daily Nation.

"Not all agents are bad, but there are a few who are misleading our youth and must face the full force of the law."

If Kenya approves these measures, will other nations follow suit?

2,020 days until 2020 Games: The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee and Tokyo Metropolitan Government are hosting a "2,020 day to Tokyo 2020" countdown event on Monday, Japan's Coming of Age Day holiday for 20-year-olds in Shinjuku Ward.

As of Monday, the start of the 2020 Summer Games will be 2,020 days away.

Among the 20-year-old Olympians scheduled to attend the festivities are swimmers Kosuke Hagino, Akihiro Yamaguchi, and Daiya Seto, gymnast Akiho Sato along with paralympic cyclist Miho Fujii. Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi and ex-Olympic tennis player Shuzo Matsuoka are slated to be on hand as well.

Lobbying efforts: Riccardo Fraccari, the World Baseball Softball Confederation president, is scheduled to meet Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee chairman Yoshiro Mori on Jan. 21, Kyodo News reported. As expected, Fraccari will make a pitch for baseball and softball to be a part of the 2020 Tokyo Games. Both sports were dropped from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Everybody helps: Rio de Janeiro officials have said they need 70,000 volunteers to run the 2016 Summer Olympics. To do so, more than 240,000 applicants have been submitted by potential volunteers.

"The online exercise is a way to engage the candidates and help them understand what it would be like to work at the Rio 2016 Games," Flavia Fontes, manager of the Rio 2016 volunteer program said in a statement posted on olympic.org. "It's a fun way for them to learn about the Games, as well as allowing us to get to know them better."

Serious business: Led by Dick Pound, its ex-president, the World Anti-Doping Agency has established a three-person commission to investigate claims made in a German TV documentary that 99 percent of Russia's track and field team is doping and that coverups have taken place, longtime Olympic reporter John Powers of the Boston Globe wrote.

Among the allegations: Russian marathoner Liliya Shobukhova reportedly shelled out more than $500,000 in order to have her biological passport altered "so that she could compete in the London Olympics," Powers wrote.

Valentin Balakhnichev, president of the Russian athletics federation has called the charges "a pack of lies," Powers reported. But the investigation goes on.

Stay tuned.

The Japan Times, meanwhile, is waiting to schedule an interview with Pound about WADA's work and anti-doping efforts in global sports.

End of an era: The International Swimming Hall of Fame, which opened its doors in 1964 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will be relocating to Santa Clara, California, this year. And that's where its 2015 Hall of Fame class will be honored.

"This is where we have an agreement. This is where we'll be," ISHOF executive director Bruce Wigo recently told the Sun Sentinel, a Fort Lauderdale-based newspaper. "We're leaving Fort Lauderdale. There's no question."

The planned move, however, has been in the works for some time.

In an October 2013 report by Swimming World Magazine, Wigo spelled out why the move made sense.

"According to Wigo, the overarching factors that would make a successful marriage between Santa Clara and ISHOF are definitely in place," the magazine reported. "Additionally, some initial conversations have been had and have even gone so far as to include architectural renderings of a new Mecca of Swimming to be created in Santa Clara. Wigo calls the plans an Aquatic Theatre, where fans would be on top of the action in the pool.

"During our conversation, Wigo checked off a litany of reasons why Santa Clara would make an ideal location for a new ISHOF facility. The history and tradition of the area is in the top echelon of all locations in the sport, as Santa Clara has produced more athletes that are currently in the Hall of Fame than any other city in the world. Santa Clara has also out-produced a host of nations as well when it comes to Hall of Fame inductees."

This reporter visited the ISHOF in September 2013 and came away realizing there were many interesting and original exhibits, including photos and memorabilia from the 1964 Tokyo Games, but the ISHOF needed to be expanded, jazzed up, renovated — something — to give it a boost for the next generation and decades to come.