To honor the sport of Javelin at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Google is celebrating with a new Doodle. The Doodle, which replaces the search engine’s official logo on its homepage, shows a male javelin thrower in action, with a packed stadium, full of fans and lit by floodlights, behind him. The athlete replaces the second O in Google, which is written in the stands behind him.

The Javelin Doodle, which is the 11th consecutive one to be featured by Google during the London Summer Olympic Games, is the first Javelin Doodle featured by the search engine. The Javelin throw events in the London Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to be held from August 7 through August 11.

The sport of Javelin features athletes as they throw the javelin, a spear, as far as possible within a predetermined area. The winner of the sport is based on the distance the javelin covers, which is the distance from the end of the runway until it hits the ground.

The javelin in the men’s competition is approximately 8.9 feet long, and weighs at least 1.8 pounds. The women’s javelin is approximately 7.2 feet long, and weighs at least 1.3 pounds.

Written by: Karen Benardello