• ARCHERY – London’s iconic cricket ground, Lord’s, will host the archery, with North and South Korea both aiming for gold. South Korea’s double Olympic gold medal winner Im Dong-Hyun is on target for a hat-trick — despite being legally blind.
• BOLT – Millions of viewers worldwide will tune in to watch Usain Bolt in the 100 metres final after he provided one of the most memorable performances of the Beijing Games in 2008. Yet he lost both the 100m and the 200m to compatriot Yohan Blake in the Jamaican trials this year.
• COPPER BOX – Handball will take place in the Copper Box — one of eight sporting venues in the Olympic Park, with 88 natural light pipes illuminating the interior.
• DOPING – A new anti-doping centre in north London is set to carry out more tests than at any other Games. The centre will operate around the clock, employing a team of 150 scientists and more than 1,000 Olympic officials.
• ENNIS, Jessica – The face of many an Olympic billboard, Britain’s hopes are firmly on Jessica Ennis this summer after she set a new British heptathlon record in Austria ealier this year.
• FESTIVAL – Not a fan of sport? Fear not. The London 2012 festival aims to ensure there’s something for everyone, with 12,000 cultural events and performances across Britain in celebration of the Games.
• GREENWICH – Located on the Greenwich peninsula on the banks of the River Thames in east London, the North Greenwich Arena will host artistic and trampoline gymnastics, as well as the basketball finals. Nearby Greenwich Park will offer equestrian events, including the modern pentathlon.
• HYDE PARK – Olympic tickets may be hard to come by, but visitors to Hyde Park can get a glimpse of the action. The triathlon — consisting of a 1,500m swim, 40k cycle ride and 10k run — and 10k marathon swimming will be held in the park and are free to watch.
• INNOVATION – London hopes to showcase the best of British innovation and design through venues like the iconic Aquatic Centre. The sweeping, wave-like roof, formed from 3,000 tonnes of steel, will form the gateway to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London.
• JAMES BOND – There’s a special mission for agent 007, alias Daniel Craig. Bond has been summoned to Buckingham Palace where he was tasked with launching the Games — by parachuting into the stadium. Of course it’s just a film. The BBC will show it ahead of the opening ceremony.
• KITEBOARDING – It’s not on the line-up for London, but this high-adrenalin sport will make its Olympic debut at the 2016 Games. It means London could be waving goodbye to windsurfing, which has been dropped from the next Games in Rio.
• LONDON – The British capital is making Olympic history by being the first in modern times to host the Games three times.
• MCDONALD’S – The Olympic Park will house the world’s largest McDonald’s, seating 1,500 people, employing 500 staff and serving up around 50,000 Big Macs during the 17-day event.
• NOBLE ART – Women’s boxing features for the first time on the Olympic schedule, more than 100 years after it first appeared in a demonstration bout in the 1902 Athens Games. It was banned by many governments for much of the last century.
• OPENING – London’s Olympic Stadium will be transformed into a rural British idyll for the opening ceremony on July 27. Danny Boyle — whose film “Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Oscars — has created the £27 million ($42 million, 33 million euro) spectacle.

Michael Phelps swims in the men’s 100-metre freestyle preliminaries at the US Olympic swimming trials. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

• PHELPS, Michael – The US swimmer, who scooped an incredible eight gold medals in Beijing, could become the most prolific medal winner in Games history. With 16 medals, the “Baltimore Bullet” is not far off the 18-medal record held by Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina.
• QUEEN – Britain’s 86-year old monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, will have the honour of declaring the Games open in this her 60th year on the throne. Her father George VI inaugurated the Games in 1948 and her great-grandfather Edward VII opened them in 1908.
• ROWING – It will take eight days to get through the 14 different classes of rowing events, featuring 550 rowers. Races will take place 25 miles outside London at Eton Dorney, near Windsor Castle, one of the queen’s official residences.
• SECURITY – Britain will mount its biggest ever peacetime security operation, with some 13,500 military personnel, 12,000 police officers and a small army of private security guards. Surface-to-air missiles will be based around the Olympic Park.
• TAYLOR, KATIE – Ireland’s gold medal hope (see noble art, above). Can the Bray woman meet the country’s expectations?
• UNIFORM – With some 70,000 volunteers helping out at the Games, it shouldn’t be hard to track one down. Look for the purple or blue uniforms bearing the Olympic logo.
• VELODROME – Hosting track cycling and BMX events, the 6,000-seat velodrome sits in the north of the Olympic Park. Britain’s triple gold-medal winning cyclist Chris Hoy had some input into the design of the structure which features two tiers separated by a glass window for a 360-degree view of the park.
• WENLOCK – The official Olympic mascot is named after the English village which in 1850 established the Wenlock Olympian Games, the pre-cursor to the modern Olympics. But the one-eyed, martian-like character is not everybody’s cup of tea.
• XIANG, Liu – Chinese hero Liu Xiang, 2004 Olympic champion in the 110 metre hurdles, hopes for gold after dramatically limping out of Beijing with a hamstring injury following a false start in his opening heat.
• YOGA – An Olympic discipline? Seems like a bit of a stretch. But that’s what the International Federation of Yoga Sports is aiming for. Watch this space.
• ZARA PHILLIPS – The queen’s grand-daughter will make the royal family proud when she competes in Britain’s equestrian squad. After missing the last two Olympics because her former horse Toytown was injured, she hopes for better luck with High Kingdom.

- © AFP, 2012

London 2012: The Olympic venues around the English capital