We're only two days away from the de facto opening of the 30th Olympic summer games. This time they are at London, which hosts the Games for the third time (1908, 1948, 2012). The opening event however is in Cardiff, where for the first time since 1972 a football team plays under the Union Jack and face the Football Ferns from New Zealand in the first match of the Women's tournament. The men's tournament starts a day later with the 1992 gold medalists Spain against Japan at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
After the opening ceremony on Friday the first 12 gold medals will be given away in Archery, Cycling, Fencing, Judo, Shooting, Swimming and Weightlifting. The 2012 Summer Olympic programme features 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines with 302 events. Baseball and Softball were dropped leading to this year's Olympic Games, however the number of medals was kept constant due to the introduction of women's boxing.
Over 10.000 athletes from 204 contries are expected to participate. Moreover athletes from other contries like the South Sudan or the Netherlands Antilles are competing independent under the Olympic flag. The largest Olympic squads are sent by the United Kingdom 542, United States 530, Russia 436, Australia 410, Germany 392 and China 380. Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia and Timor-Leste only have two Olympians each.
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