While everyone in China, and in fact around the world, is getting excited about the upcoming 2008 Olympics, lots of people in Britain are pleased that two major sporting events will be taking place here in the future.

First there was the announcement that London would be hosting the next Olympics in 2012, and just this week it has been revealed that Scottish city Glasgow will host the 2014 Commonwealth¹ Games.

The Commonwealth Games takes place every four years. It is a competition between all the countries of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 countries, most of which are former British colonies. This event has been taking place since 1930.

Glasgow was in competition with the Nigerian capital city Abuja to host the games but the Scottish city comfortably beat its rival.

The hundreds of people who had gathered in the city centre to hear the announcement greeted the result with jubilation². The residents of Glasgow are particularly excited, not only because they are proud to have such an event, but also because it will make the area prosper³. The government will pump lots of much-needed money into housing, retail⁴ and leisure developments, which will make Glasgow a more exciting and attractive city.

Preparation is also well under way for the London 2012 Olympics. Last week the design for a new Olympic stadium was revealed. It will cost £496 million (7.5 billion RMB) to build. It's a bowl-shaped design with 80,000 seats.

It is designed in such a way that once the Olympics have finished, temporary seating will be removed and it will become a 25,000-seat venue⁵ that will serve the local community.

There is already a well-established team of politicians and officials taking charge of all the preparations for the Olympics. They can now look forward to collaborating⁶ with the organisers of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth games to ensure both the events run smoothly⁷.

This is an exciting opportunity to put the UK well and truly on the map as a very competent host of major international sporting events.