Olympic Games in the opening ceremony. Though the flame has been an Olympic symbol since 1928, the torch relay was only introduced at the 1936 Summer Games to promote the Third Reich. The Olympic mascot, an animal or human figure representing the cultural heritage of the host country, was introduced in 1968. It has played an important part of the Games' identity promotion since the 1980 Summer Olympics, when the Russian bear cub Misha reached international stardom. The mascot of the Summer Olympics in London was named Wenlock after the town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire. Much Wenlock still hosts the Wenlock
Ian Thorpe and drug testing caused ASADA to initially investigate, and dismiss, the test result. Thorpe denied the rumours in a press conference on 31 March 2007 stating, "I firmly believe I am clean, I have never cheated and have always fulfilled my obligations." In April 2007, the World Anti-Doping Agency (or WADA) issued a statement condemning the breach-of-privacy "L'Equipe"'s announcement constituted. Thorpe is prominent in the campaign against drug use, inside and outside sports. He has called for the introduction of blood testing, and criticised FINA for allegedly inadequate drug-testing procedures, claiming that "for anyone to think that they're swimming at a clean Olympic