Level 2 Intermediate 050 London Olympics 2012: Meet Wenlock and Mandeville

2
Find the information
Look in the text and find the following information as quickly as possible. 
1. Where were the Paralympics founded?
London
2. Where were the 1972 Olympics held? 
Waldi
3. When was the logo for the London Olympics launched? 
2007
4. How much did the design of the logo cost? 
£400.000
5. How much money will the mascots bring to the Olympics organizing committee? 
£15m
6. How much money is the general public contributing to the London Olympic Games?
£400.000

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NEWS LESSONS / London Olympics 2012: Meet Wenlock and Mandeville / Intermediate
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London Olympics 2012: Meet Wenlock and Mandeville
 
Level 2
Intermediate
London Olympics 2012: Meet Wenlock 
and Mandeville, drips off the old block
Owen Gibson 
19 May, 2010 
In the end they were neither animal, vegetable 
nor mineral. Nor, as some cynics had suggested, 
did they look like white elephants. Instead, 
most people were simply baffled when they 
saw Wenlock and Mandeville, the London 2012 
Olympic and Paralympic mascots, for the
first time.
The mascots have a metallic finish, a single 
large eye made out of a camera lens, a London 
taxi light on their heads and the Olympic rings 
represented as friendship bracelets on their 
wrists and look like characters from a Pixar 
animation. But London 2012 organizers, for 
whom the launch of the mascots is the start of a 
crucial period in which the Games will become 
public property, pointed to the delighted reaction 
of a hall full of primary school children at the 
launch as evidence that they would connect with 
their target audience.
“They remind you of aliens, which is really 
weird and cool,” said 10-year-old Ali. “It reminds 
you of the Olympics, which is worldwide so it’s 
something you’ll want to remember forever,” 
added 11-year-old Zanyab as they played with 
the life-size mascots for the cameras.
The two mascots are based on a short story by 
children’s author Michael Morpurgo that tells 
how they were made from small drops of the 
steel used to build the Olympic stadium. They 
will be crucial in raising funds and spreading 
messages about the games. Wenlock, named 
after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock that 
helped inspire Pierre de Coubertin to launch the 
modern Olympics, and Mandeville, named after 
the Buckinghamshire town of Stoke Mandeville, 
where the Paralympics were founded, will 
become very familiar in the next two years. The 
chairman of the London organizing committee of 
the Olympic Games (Locog), Lord Coe, said the 
mascots were aimed at children and designed 
with the digital age in mind. He said they had the 
most positive reaction in workshops where they 
tested them.
Children will be encouraged to interact with the 
characters, inviting them via Facebook, Twitter 
and the web to visit their school and, said Coe, 
inspiring them to take up different sports. “The 
story itself has its roots in the nations and 
regions. Young people will be able to decide 
where they go. There is a real interaction there, 
it is a language and a flexibility that is driven by 
young people.” 
The pair were introduced in an animated film that 
followed their story from the Bolton steelworks 
where the frame of the Olympic stadium was 
made. They will become a range of up to 30 soft 
toys, including versions based on celebrities and 
sports stars. There will also be badges, T-shirts, 
mugs and more.
Organizers hope Wenlock and Mandeville will 
be among the more popular Olympic mascots, 
such as Waldi the dog from the 1972 Munich 
Games and Misha the bear from the 1980 
Moscow Olympics – rather than the much-
criticized Izzy of Atlanta 1996. “The Games have 
got a few amazing assets – the mascot, tickets, 
the volunteers, the torch relay – and you have 
got to really use those to bring home your key 
messages,” said Locog’s chief executive, Paul 
Deighton. “If you link them together you begin 
to have a really powerful story that people will 
respond to.”
The launch of the bold London Olympics logo 
in 2007 was controversial, with many criticizing 
its graffiti-like design. Organizers, who paid 
£400,000 for its design, argued that it was very 
adaptable and perfect for the digital age. 
The mascots, costing, according to Deighton, 
just “a few thousand pounds”, are an important 
stage in the Olympic business plan from a 
financial and marketing point of view. They will 
bring up to £15m to the organizing committee 
via dozens of licensing deals, part of an overall 
licensing target of £70m to £80m towards 
Locog’s £2bn privately-raised budget.
In 1984, the Los Angeles Games saw the start 
of the money-spinning Olympic era. The event 
was the first to use its Disney-designed mascot 
to raise funds, since when they have become a 
cash cow for organizers. But the story behind
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NEWS LESSONS / London Olympics 2012: Meet Wenlock and Mandeville / Intermediate
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