One-year Countdown to 2012 Olympics Begins

Posted July 27th, 2011 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

The British Foreign Office is holding events around the world to mark the one-year countdown to the beginning of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

At the United Nations in New York City, the British U.N. mission, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis unveiled an Olympic countdown clock.

Lewis competed for the United States in track and field events in the Olympic Games from 1984 to 1996, medaling in sprints, relays, and the long jump.

In Washington, representatives from the British and Canadian embassies ran a ceremonial Olympic torch relay from the embassy of Canada to the British embassy about 6 kilometers away.

Countdown clocks were also unveiled in New Delhi and Beijing.

In Pakistan, the British High Commission's tennis team competed in a mixed doubles match with top Pakistani players. The British Embassy in Romania threw a street party in the capital, Bucharest.

In Uzbekistan, British diplomats staged a mini-Olympics competition for teenagers, and in Brazil they held a tea party at the official residence in Brazilia.

Britain says some four billion people are expected to watch the Olympic Games on television next year.