[ti:London Olympics Begins; Punishment for Penn State] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:IN THE NEWS] [00:00.00]This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. [00:12.83]Seventeen thousand athletes and officials [00:15.32]from more than two hundred countries [00:18.31]will take part in the London Olympics. [00:24.22]Hours before the opening ceremony Friday night, [00:27.95]London's Big Ben rang for three minutes [00:29.69]to welcome the Games. [00:33.17]Also, President Obama's wife Michelle [00:37.22]visited with the United States Olympic team. [00:39.83]She is leading the American delegation [00:42.01]at the twenty twelve Games. [00:44.93]MICHELLE OBAMA: "Every few years these games [00:47.85]bring pride, excitement and wonder [00:51.84]to millions of people around the world, [00:55.44]and that must mean so much to all of you, [00:58.62]being part of giving so many people that much hope." [01:03.10]The Republican Party's presidential candidate, [01:05.78]Mitt Romney, is also in London. [01:09.51]About thirty-six thousand British troops, [01:13.05]police and private security guards [01:15.61]will protect the Olympic sites [01:19.09]and the streets of London and other cities. [01:22.32]Officials had to deploy extra troops [01:26.68]after the private security company G4S [01:29.42]failed to keep its promise to [01:31.72]provide ten thousand workers. [01:35.70]This year marks the fortieth anniversary [01:39.11]of the attack by Palestinian gunmen [01:40.79]at the Munich Games. [01:43.84]Eleven Israelis were killed. [01:47.45]The International Olympic Committee president [01:50.93]decided against a moment of silence [01:53.80]at the opening ceremony in London. [01:55.91]The victims will be remembered [01:57.78]at a separate event. [02:00.89]Athletes at the London Games will [02:03.62]compete in twenty-six sports. [02:07.54]Most eyes will be on American Michael Phelps [02:10.27]when the first gold medals in swimming [02:12.33]are awarded Saturday. [02:16.31]He plans to swim in seven events in London. [02:19.42]If he wins medals in three of them, [02:22.65]he will break the all-time record for [02:27.01]total Olympic medals. Former Soviet gymnast [02:31.24]Larisa Latynina holds the record of eighteen. [02:35.16]A newcomer to the American swimming team, [02:39.01]Missy Franklin, is also getting a lot of attention. [02:43.24]She qualified for four individual events [02:46.37]at only the age of seventeen. [02:49.98]The closing ceremony for the London Games [02:51.78]is August twelfth. [02:55.64]The start of the Olympics is a high point [02:58.56]for the sports world. But the week began [03:02.67]on a low point for American college football [03:07.15]in a case we first reported on last November. [03:11.88]On Monday the governing group for college sports [03:16.85]punished Penn State University for its failure to [03:20.15]stop the sexual abuse of young boys [03:22.33]by one of its coaches. [03:26.18]The National Collegiate Athletic Association [03:30.23]fined the university sixty million dollars. [03:35.51]The NCAA also cancelled all Penn State [03:39.68]football victories for the past fourteen seasons. [03:44.05]It banned the team from competing in postseason [03:47.16]bowl games for the next four years. [03:51.21]And it reduced the number of scholarships [03:53.63]that the university can offer. [03:58.73]Last month, a jury found former assistant coach [04:04.02]Jerry Sandusky guilty of abusing ten young boys, [04:07.13]sometimes on the Pennsylvania campus. [04:10.78]The sixty-eight-year-old Sandusky [04:13.52]faces sentencing in September. [04:17.31]He could spend the rest of his life in prison. [04:22.23]The NCAA sanctions mean former head coach [04:25.40]Joe Paterno falls from first [04:28.70]to fifth on the list of coaches [04:32.43]with the most wins in major-college football. [04:38.22]He lost his job last year over the Sandusky case [04:43.19]and died in January at the age of eighty-five. [04:48.92]And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. [04:52.40]For all the news from the London Olympics, [04:57.87]go to voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember.