2012 Unveils Mascots Wenlock And Mandeville

The official mascots of the London 2012 Olympic Games have been unveiled by The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

Olympic mascot Wenlock and Paralympic mascot Mandeville were created from the last drops of steel left over from the construction of the final support girder for the Olympic Stadium. 

The mascots’ names reflect the UK’s Olympic and Paralympic histories – Wenlock’s name is inspired by the Shropshire village of Much Wenlock where the ‘Wenlock Games’ was one of the inspirations that led the founder of the modern Olympic movement Baron Pierre de Coubertin to create the Olympic Games.

Mandeville’s name is inspired by Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire after the Stoke Mandeville Games, widely recognised as a forerunner of the modern Paralympic movement.  
In a bid to resonate with young children LOCOG asked children’s author Michael Morpurgo to come up with a background story on the characters, which tells how the figures were brought to life and can change their appearance depending on the situation.

LOCOG will now try and engage the mascots with the public by travelling round the country in the build up to the Games.

A UK wide schools competition has been launched to determine where Wenlock and Mandeville’s journeys will start. 

Reflecting London 2012’s vision to appeal to young people, both Wenlock and Mandeville will have significant presence online, with their own website at www.london2012.com/mascots which is linked to their individual Twitter and Facebook sites.

To celebrate the launch of the mascots, a limited edition run of t-shirts and pin badges has been made available for sale from today on the London 2012 online shop.