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 Games, they'd be naive". Although swimmers and coaches praised him, he was condemned by FINA, who accused him of bringing the sport into disrepute. Thorpe was selected by the United Nations to lead an anti-recreational drugs campaign in Japan, as well as promotional work for UNICEF for UN Children's Week. Ian Thorpe and drug testing Ian Thorpe, an Australian freestyle swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist, has been targeted in the 2000s for criticism alleging his athletic achievements have been fueled by the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and steroid drug doping. Despite numerous tests no proof of these allegations has