The Olympic mascots of the past have usually been animals specially associated with the Olympic city, and you can understand - in a world culture saturated in Disney - why this option might appeal to Games organisers. If London had taken this route, what might the 2012 mascots have looked like: lions maybe, or sparrows; pigeons, or urban foxes? In the end, it’s probably easier to create something new and avoid the clichés. Wenlock and Mandeville are certainly new, and in their electronic form at least, they manage to be cute without being fluffy. The video on their website also gives them a context, which makes them even more appealing, particularly from a child’s point of view. In short, I like them, though I doubt if anyone wearing those outfits will be able to bounce about with quite the same vigour as the bear at the Berlin world athletics championships. Maybe some intelligent tailoring will have to be employed between now and 2012 to make them less clunky and more mobile in the ‘flesh’. http://www.london2012.com/mascots

The perils of coming up with an idea for a mascot are many and varied, so I feel for LOCOG in their attempts to please everyone (or indeed anyone), especially after the criticism they received for the 2012 logo. As for the names, they’re a timely reminder of the role GB has played in inspiring the modern Olympics and Paralympics. Much Wenlock is of course the town where William Penny Brookes organised the first modern Olympic Games in 1850, and those Games still take place every year. If you wish to know more, the Much Wenlock Olympian Society has an informative website at http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/ and the BL has a copy of:

 

William Penny Brookes and the Olympic connection [authors Muriel Furbank…et al]

Much Wenlock: Wenlock Olympian Society, 2007

London reference collections shelfmark: YK.2010.a.14872

 

Mandeville owes his name to the pioneering work of Sir Ludwig Guttmann with spinal injury patients at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Believing in the value of sporting endeavour to improve the physical and mental condition of disabled patients, Guttmann organised what was to be the first Paralympic Games in 1948.

 

Scruton, Joan

Stoke Mandeville road to the Paralympics: fifty years of history

Brill: Peterhouse, 1998

London Reference collections shelfmark: YK.1998.b.6102

DS (lending) shelfmark: 99/16790 

 

The interesting thing about the initiatives at both Stoke Mandeville and Much Wenlock is that their originators were inspired by a desire to pursue athletic and moral excellence through peaceful competition. The line of descent to the modern Olympic movement is therefore unbroken.

By the way, does anyone remember World Cup Willie? (I can even remember his song).