Let the Games Begin!

It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that the world was gossiping about the Beijing Olympics. It started off with a spectacular opening ceremony, which included a cast of over 15,000 people, in the eye-catching Bird’s Nest stadium. That was four years ago, and now all eyes are on London for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

One of the changes for the 2012 Games is the new mascots: Wenlock and Mandeville. These shiny creatures are said to have been created from two drops of steel left over from London’s Olympic Stadium. Each mascot has a camera for an eye that captures all of the Olympic action. Their names come from two athletic events in England that were the forerunners of the modern Olympics and Paralympics.

While Wenlock and Mandeville love to try out all of the Olympic sports new to them, there is one that will be new to the whole world. For the first time in history, Women’s Boxing will appear at the Olympics, making this the first Summer Games with all sports having both women’s and men’s events. Baseball and softball aren’t included this year, but the rest of the sporting events will seem more vivid than ever as all the heart-stopping action is broadcast in 3-D.

倫敦奧運火熱開幕！

全球在閒聊北京奧運的話題好像還是不久前的事。北京奧運在吸引眾人目光的鳥巢體育館中以演出陣容超過一萬五千人的一場壯觀開幕儀式展開。那是四年前的事了，而現在所有人的目光都集中在倫敦的二○一二年夏季奧林匹克運動會上。

二○一二奧運會的改變之一是新的吉祥物：溫洛克和曼德維爾。這兩隻閃亮的生物據說是用倫敦奧運體育館所剩下的兩小塊鋼鐵創造出來的。每隻吉祥物都有相機當作眼睛來捕捉所有的奧運活動。他們的名字來自英國的兩項運動會，是現代奧運會和殘障奧運會的前身。

儘管溫洛克和曼德維爾熱愛嘗試所有對他們來說很新鮮的奧運項目，但有一項賽事對全球來說都很新奇。女子拳擊是史上頭一次出現在奧運會中，使得本屆夏季奧運會成為首次各項運動項目都包含男子及女子組的奧運會。今年未包括棒球和壘球，但其餘的運動賽事會顯得比以往更生動鮮明，因為所有刺激緊張的動作都會以3-D形式轉播。