A competition to design the medals of the 2008 Olympic Games was launched on Wednesday by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG). The closing date for design applications will be March 26, 2006, and the winning designs are expected to be unveiled in the middle of this year.

  "The designs for the Beijing Olympic medals should highlight the themes of 'glory and dream' and 'faster, higher and stronger,'" said Zhang Ming, deputy director of BOCOG Culture and Ceremonies Department.

  "The medals should be the material vehicles to disseminate the Olympic ideals and the concepts of the Beijing Games, to showcase China's arts, designs and scientific and technological development. They should become the unique legacy of the Beijing Games."

重点词汇

launch  v. 发射，开始，启动    　　closing date  n. 截止日期
disseminate  v. 散布