London Unveils 2012 Mascots

(ATR) LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe launches the 2012 Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, saying that they were created for children to help link them to the "values of sport’ and "inspire kids to be the best they can be."

Coe spoke at an east London primary school today, where two schoolchildren unveiled the steel mascots to the media amid a tight press embargo. They were officially launched at 7pm BST on a BBC TV magazine program.

The steel mascots have a number of distinctive design features, including yellow traffic lights on their heads, inspired by London’s iconic black taxis. The Olympic rings are incorporated into a friendship band on Wenlock’s wrist. The mascots single eye is a camera, the premise of which is to capture their "journey" prior to 2012.

Wenlock takes its name from the Shropshire village of Much Wenlock. Here the "Wenlock Games" were one of Pierre de Coubertin’s principle inspirations for the founding of the modern games.

Mandeville’s name comes from Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, where the Stoke Mandeville Games were staged in the 1940s - precursor of the modern Paralympics.

Coe described the mascots as "absolutely rooted in the genesis of the Paralympics movement."

LOCOG chief executive Paul Deighton told reporters that the mascots would help broaden the appeal of the Games to the rest of Britain, and particularly young people.

"While the Olympic Games are in London it is very important to get the rest of the U.K. behind it," he said.

"It’s very important for kids, it’s very important to have a great story behind it. These are characters who will really show people all about the different sports in the Olympic Games, how to be good at them, and tell a story."

The mascots will form a key part of London 2012’s educational program with participating schools able to invite the mascots to visit them. An interactive website will enable children to personalize them to their own tastes.

More importantly for LOCOG they hope to bring in $101 million in licensing revenues, with merchandising available from next month.

IOC coordination commission chairman Dennis Oswald praised LOCOG for producing mascots that combined historical and contemporary resonance.

"Linking a British event that was one of the inspirations for the modern Olympic Games to the 30th edition of the Games, Wenlock will undoubtedly help to spread the message of Olympics across Great Britain and the world, while entertaining young and old alike," he said.

Hugh Robertson, Britain’s new Minister for Sport and the Olympics, said the launch was "an exciting milestone" and would "help to bring the personality of the games to life particularly for young people."

The unveiling in a primary school in Tower Hamlets, a deprived area two miles from the Olympic village, was a masterstroke, seeming to assuage skeptical British journalists who turned out in high numbers.

Many were expecting to witness a repeat of the unpopular Olympic logo’s launch in 2007, which was roundly lambasted – not least when its $575,300 price was revealed.

But the schoolchildren seemed enamored by Wenlock and Mandeville, and skepticism was further allayed when organizers revealed that the design cost just "several thousand pounds."

This was because iris, the independent creative agency which designed the mascots, did so after winning an open competition.

A short animated film, written by former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, revealed the "story" behind the mascots.

Formed from drops of steel from the last girder in the Olympic Stadium, they were sculpted into life by a retired construction work and presented to his grandchildren. They then came to life and set upon a series of adventures, which will be updated in the two years leading up to the games.

Coe said that the children in the forty focus groups staged by London 2012 "weren’t attracted to human or animal – they just wanted a good story."

The official website for the mascots is at http://www.ourlondon2012.com/mascots/.

Written by James Corbett in London.