本期封面故事

Let the Games Begin!
倫敦奧運火熱開幕！

It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that the world was gossiping about the Beijing Olympics. It started off with a spectacular opening ceremony,  which included a cast of over 15,000 people, in the eye-catching Bird’s Nest stadium. That was four years ago, and now all eyes are on London for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

One of the changes for the 2012 Games is the new mascots: Wenlock and Mandeville. These shiny creatures are said to have been created from two drops of steel left over from London’s Olympic Stadium. Each mascot has a camera for an eye that captures all of the Olympic action. Their names come from two athletic events in England that were the forerunners of the modern Olympics and Paralympics.

While Wenlock and Mandeville love to try out all of the Olympic sports new to them, there is one that will be new to the whole world. For the first time in history, Women’s Boxing will appear at the Olympics, making this the first Summer Games with all sports having both women’s and men’s events. Baseball and softball aren’t included this year, but the rest of the sporting events will seem more vivid than ever as all the heart-stopping action is broadcast in 3-D.

全球在閒聊北京奧運的話題好像還是不久前的事。北京奧運在吸引眾人目光的鳥巢體育館中以演出陣容超過一萬五千人的一場壯觀開幕儀式展開。那是四年前的事了，而現在所有人的目光都集中在倫敦的二○一二年夏季奧林匹克運動會上。

二○一二奧運會的改變之一是新的吉祥物：溫洛克和曼德維爾。這兩隻閃亮的生物據說是用倫敦奧運體育館所剩下的兩小塊鋼鐵創造出來的。每隻吉祥物都有相機當作眼睛來捕捉所有的奧運活動。他們的名字來自英國的兩項運動會，是現代奧運會和殘障奧運會的前身。

儘管溫洛克和曼德維爾熱愛嘗試所有對他們來說很新鮮的奧運項目，但有一項賽事對全球來說都很新奇。女子拳擊是史上頭一次出現在奧運會中，使得本屆夏季奧運會成為首次各項運動項目都包含男子及女子組的奧運會。今年未包括棒球和壘球，但其餘的運動賽事會顯得比以往更生動鮮明，因為所有刺激緊張的動作都會以3-D形式轉播。
本期封面故事

Architecture for a Sustainable Olympics
奧運場館邁向永續環保—Katrina Brown

Organizers of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London have risen to the challenge of holding the first sustainable Olympics in history. When designing the buildings used for sports and accommodations, architects needed to consider more than just whether their designs were distinctive. Additionally, the venues had to be constructed to be environmentally friendly.

Architects kept a key phrase in mind when they created the designs: reduce, reuse, and recycle. The first step to reducing waste was to use venues that were already available. As an example, tennis will be played at the Wimbledon tennis club. The venue was updated for the Olympics, and a retractable roof was put on to cover the Center Court. The famous live music and sports venue Wembley Arena will be used for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics. Fortunately, Wembley Arena did not have to be changed at all.

As the architects designed new venues, they wanted the buildings to have as little impact on the environment as possible. Specifically, they incorporated a lot of recycled material into the constructions.  The Aquatic Centre fits this bill with 30,000 sections of low-carbon timber and 11,000 square meters of 100 percent recycled aluminum lining the roof. The base that the Olympic Stadium was built on is made up of 6,500 cubic meters of recycled cement that was moved from other parts of the Olympic Park.

二○一二倫敦夏季奧運的主辦單位接下了打造史上第一個永續奧運的挑戰。在設計體育賽事和住宿用的建築時，建築師們要考量的不只是他們的設計是否獨特而已。這些場地也必須是環保建築。

建築師們在設計時謹記這個關鍵詞：減少浪費、重複使用，以及回收。減少浪費的第一步就是使用現成的場地。舉例來說，網球比賽將在溫布頓網球場進行。該場地已為奧運做了更新，而且還裝設一個可伸縮的屋頂來遮蓋中央球場。知名的現場音樂會和體育賽事場地溫布利體育館也會被用來作為羽球和韻律體操賽事的場地。幸運的是，溫布利體育館完全不需要做任何變動。

建築師在設計新場地時，希望這些建築物對環境的衝擊愈小愈好。說得更明確一點，他們將許多回收的建材融入這些建物中。曼徹斯特水上運動中心即符合這個要求，它有三萬根低碳的橫樑和面積達一萬一千平方公尺、完全用回收鋁鋪設的屋頂。奧運主場館的基底則是利用六千五百立方公尺的回收水泥打造而成，這些水泥都是從奧運公園的其他地方搬過來的。