When the official logo of the 2012 London Olympics was released three years ago, the odd puzzle-piece design was the object of so much scorn that organizers were desperate to avoid similar criticism when they unveiled the mascots for the Games on Wednesday. With the introduction of Wenlock and Mandeville (above), London 2012 organizers realized their goal. The criticism of the mascots won't be similar to the complaints about the logo. No, they'll be much, much worse.

Look, I don't know what to say. Olympic mascots have always been the object of scorn (remember Izzy?), but these two, uh, things take the absurdity to a whole new level. There's a complicated backstory to the characters which was written by a children's author. It explains why the mascots have one eye (it's a camera lens to see the world) and yellow lights on tops of their heads (an homage to London taxicabs), but fails to tell the tale of why they look like early rejects from a Pixar movie. Plus, the fact that some

When Tommie Smith last set the world record in the straight 200 meter run, Walt Disney was still alive, the Beatles had yet to release Sgt. Pepper and Smith himself was still known as a great track star, not just as the guy who did the black power salute in Mexico City. For 44 years Smith's hand-timed 19.5 stood as the best ever time in the longer sprint run on a straight track. Not anymore.

American sprint star Tyson Gay lowered Smith's mark by .09 seconds this weekend on a specially constructed track at Manchester's Great City Games. His time of 19.41 included a blazing first 100 split of 9.88 and served notice that, when healthy, Gay can present a challenge to Usain Bolt. (It might not be much of a challenge, but still.)

Smith himself was in attendance to witness the feat and gave hearty congratulations to Gay. Soon after he broke the mark in May 1966, the IAAF stopped recognizing separate world records in the straight 200 and only included marks set on the regulation curved track.

When Olympic star Lindsey Vonn appears as a guest star on the May 24 episode of her favorite television show, "Law and Order," it will be the fulfillment of one of her lifelong dreams. Her timing turned out to be impeccable, as that show will end up being the final one for the venerable TV drama.

NBC cancelled the long-running procedural and legal drama Thursday, 11 days before Vonn was set to appear on the 20th season finale. Vonn isn't taking the decision lying down. She started a campaign on Facebook to save the show almost immediately after finding out about the decision.

The two-time Olympic medalist was first offered a guest spot on the show during a live interview with Bob Costas in Vancouver. Producer Dick Wolf heard the downhill gold medalist was a huge fan and offered her a role on an upcoming episode. Vonn filmed her scenes in April, excitedly Tweeting about the experience from the set.

Vonn learned of the cancellation during a conference call with reporters and quickly

The women's heavyweight judo champion of China has been banned for two years after testing positive for the dangerous steroid clenbuterol. Her coach says it's all a misunderstanding stemming from Tong Wen's love of pork chops.

The 2008 +78 kg Olympic gold medalist tested positive for the drug during the 2009 World Judo Championships. Her coach says the result wasn't because of anything nefarious but due to eating steroid-injected Chinese pork products.

"She trained in Europe for a while and was sick of European food so we gave her a lot of pork chops when she returned home to prepare for the 2009 world championships in Rotterdam," Coach Wu Weifeng told Beijing Youth Daily. China's food problems are well documented and have been blamed before in positive tests, most notably when a swimmer blamed eating at a barbecue for his increased clenbuterol levels.

The drug is often used as an additive to feed pigs in China.

Tong Wen was stripped of her 2009 world championship but still retains

Snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who suffered a brain injury while training for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, has made an incredible recovery. After the injury in late December, Pearce was in critical condition. Just four months later, he is able to walk and talk without difficulty. He spoke with NBC's Tom Brokaw about his experience.

Pearce said watching the Olympics was difficult.

"That was quite hard for me, seeing how fun the half-pipe looked," Pearce said. From his hospital bed, he watched as U.S. snowboarder Shaun White won gold and Scotty Lago took home the bronze.

He also hopes that his ordeal doesn't keep children from trying snowboarding because it has brought him so much joy, and he wouldn't change anything about his career, even the accident. But what Pearce is most excited about are his plans to return to snowboarding as soon as he can.

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Illegal injections of human growth hormone and testosterone help sprinters go faster, says everybody in the world who had ever heard of HGH a recent study by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the obvious findings:

The eight-week study, one of the most rigorous examinations of growth hormone and athletic performance to date, involved 96 healthy, recreationally trained athletes with an average age of 27. The 63 male participants were assigned to receive one of four regimens: two milligrams per day of growth hormone; 250 milligrams per week of testosterone; both growth hormone and testosterone; or placebo injections.

After eight weeks, researchers found that growth hormone improved sprint capacity in men and women by an average of 3.9% over the placebo group - which would trim 0.4 of a second from a 10-second time in the 100-meter dash ... That same 3.9% improvement could cut 1.2 seconds from a 30-second time in a 50-meter swim.

"This is helpful in showing

Three-time Olympian Dominique Dawes (pictured in 1992) and her teammates from the 2000 Olympics were awarded a bronze medal 10 years after the games in Sydney ended because a Chinese competitor was underage. Though she benefited from the rule stating Olympic gymnasts must be 16 or older.

"If someone can qualify for the Olympic Games at 13 or 14 years old, and they're talented enough and mentally strong enough, they can handle the pressure, I really feel they should be able to compete for their country," Dawes told Fourth-Place Medal.

Dawes would know better than most. She competed -- and medalled -- in three Olympics, first taking the Olympic stage when she was 15 (before the rule was enacted) and competed for the final time at 23.

She says that the training demands are already in place before a young woman hits the age when she is allowed to be in the Olympics.

"As an Olympic, female gymnast, you're already training such intense hours at 11 or 12 years old, why if a girl can qualify

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It may be 10 years since she competed in the Olympics, but gymnast Dominique Dawes is thrilled about the new medal she will soon add to her collection. Dawes and her teammates were given the bronze after China was stripped of their 2000 Olympic bronze medals because they fielded an underage competitor, Dong Fangxiao.

Dawes, who has worked with Yahoo! Sports for the past two Olympics, heard the good news from another reporter.

"I got calls from fellow reporters before receiving an email from the [Gymnastics International] Federation," Dawes told Fourth-Place Medal. "I also got a call by my coach, Kelli Hill, to congratulate me on the medal."

She said that getting the medal puts a positive ending on an Olympics that had been disappointing for Team USA, which had been shut out of medals.

"It was very difficult not just for the gymnasts, but the coaches as well. When we got to Sydney, we didn't have gold medal on our minds,