By Sona Gevorgian

YEREVAN, July 27 – The London 2012 Olympic Games kick off today at midnight, with a fantastic Opening Ceremony welcoming the world’s greatest Olympic athletes to London.

The London Olympic Games will feature 36 different sports, breaking down into disciplines and events. The event has gathered together more than 10 000 sportsmen from 204 countries including 25 wrestlers from Armenia. The Armenians will go against the world`s best in weightlifting, wrestling, judo, boxing, marksmanship, swimming, long jump, taekwondo, gymnastics and javelin.

Among Armenian sportsmen are wrestlers Arthur Aleksanyan, Arsen Julfalakyan, Yuri Peatrikeev, boxer Andranik Hakobyan, gymnast Arthur Davtyan, lifters Tigran Martirossyan, Meline Daluzyan and others.

Leaders of a number of countries including Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will attend the opening ceremony

According to the Republic of Armenia Government decree Olympic gold winners will be awarded with 20 million drams ($50,000), and silver and bronze medalists will get 15 million ($37,500) and 10 million ($25,000) drams respectively. In the history of independent Armenia its representative only once has won a gold medal. It was Greco-Roman wrestler Armen Nazarian who participated in Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

Yerevan Report