The London 2012 Olympics officially start on July 27th, but for the British, the biggest sporting event in the world started even before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. On June 6, 2005, the capital of England was chosen to host the 2012 Olympic Games, after winning the dispute against Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris. Until the opening, there were seven years of many works, training and planning.
Although the event is known as the London Olympics, other cities in Great Britain will also host games, the event's sub-venues are: Manchester, Coventry, Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff, which will host football matches, as well as Portland, Buckinghamshire and Essek, where Castle Castle is located. Hadleigh. Another peculiarity involving football is that matches start before the official opening due to the number of games and the time for athletes to recover. The Brazilian men's team, for example, will debut on July 26 against Egypt.
Altogether, 204 nations will be present at the London Olympics competing for medals in 36 sports (image above). In relation to the 2008 Olympic Games, baseball and softball were excluded. Approximately 16 thousand athletes are expected for the games, not counting the coaches, physiotherapists, managers and other professionals that make up an Olympic delegation. Brazil will be present in London with 259 athletes, less than half of the largest delegation, Great Britain, with 542.
The biggest work carried out for the event was the London Olympic Stadium (image below), the stage for the opening and closing of the games, in addition to athletics disputes. Some competition venues did not need to be built, such as The O2 gymnasium, which will host the competitions of basketball and gymnastics, Wembley Stadium, home of the football finals, and the tennis courts of Wimbledon.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
In all editions of Olympic and Paralympic games, mascots are chosen to represent the venue. In the case of London 2012, two mascots were chosen, Wenlock and Mandeville, which represent steel drops from the industrial city of Bolton. The name Wenlock comes from the town of Munch Wenlock, where competitions were held in the 19th century that would have influenced the first Olympiad of the Modern Era in 1896, in Athens. Mandeville, on the other hand, comes from the village of Stoke Mandeville, which hosted competitions for the disabled in 1948, on the same day as the opening day of the London Olympics that year.
Highlights
Big names in the sport will compete in the London Olympics. One of them is Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter who holds the world record for the 100 and 200 meters. In swimming, we will have the American Michel Phelps, who if he gets three more medals will surpass the record of the former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won 18, and, of course, Brazilian César Cielo, world record holder for the 50 and 100 m freestyle swimming Olympic.
In team sports, it will be nice to follow the men's basketball team in the United States, considered a of the best of all times, and the Brazilian men's soccer team, which is seeking its first medal in gold. Other exclusively team sports present at the Olympics are volleyball, handball and field hockey.
The London Olympics will close on 12 August 2012. Next stop, Rio 2016!
by Adriano Lesme
Brazil School Team
