Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville: Not caught up in travel chaos
The background
The first of thousands of athletes from around the world arrived in the UK for London 2012, eleven days before the opening ceremony. The mass arrival is seen as the first real test of London’s infrastructure ahead of the Olympics. But early reports were not entirely encouraging.
Bus lost for four hours
American hurdles champion Kerron Clement claimed on Twitter that the bus ferrying him and fellow athletes to the Olympic Village got lost for four hours, according to The Guardian. And The Daily Mail reported a “32-mile traffic jam” on the A4, as the first Olympic lane opened: “The new arrangements increased congestion on the key commuter route and clearly caused confusion for some motorists, as pictures showed cars battling to get out of the lane this morning.”
Um, so we’ve been lost on the road for 4hrs. Not a good first impression London.
— Kerron Clement (@KerronClement) July 16, 2012
Olympic weather forecast: hail and thunder
London Mayor Boris Johnson asked meteorologist Piers Corbyn for his London Olympics weather forecast in The Telegraph. “We’re very confident that there will be a lot of rain – a deluge, really – during the entire Olympic period, and we are 80 per cent sure that the Opening Ceremony itself will feature heavy rain, including hail and thunder,” said Corbyn. But Johnson remained upbeat: “We like a spot of precipitation. It intensifies the pleasure of the sun. Made us what we are. And by the way, it still rains more in Rome than it does in London.”
