Today in China

The Olympic Games Pictograms are the basic graphical representation of the Olympic sports: athletics, rowing, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoe / kayak flatwater, canoe / kayak slalom, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, wrestling, swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, water polo, modern pentathlon, softball, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing, volleyball and beach volleyball.

They will be used for the directional instruction system, advertising and communications, landscape and environmental arrangement, TV broadcasting and souvenir designs. They are thus one of the most important marketing tools of the Olympic Games.

The search for good looking pictograms started in March 2005 when the BOCOG (The Beijing Organizing Comittee of the Olympic Games) invited four professional design institutes and organizations to compete for the design of the pictograms. The design based on “seal characters” by China Central Academy of Fine Arts and that on “string” by Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University were then shortlisted and the two institute worked together on a common design. The final design has been sent to the 28 International Sports Federations (IFs) for approval, and all of the IFs had endorsed the Pictograms by April 2006. And last June, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted the set of the Pictograms.

Source
Beijing Olympic Games Official Website

Continue to read more if you want to have more details and learn some Olympic Games related Chinese Mandarin!

Pictogram	Chinese	Pinyin	English
	帆船	fán chuán	Sailing
	花样游泳	huā yàng yóu yǒng	Synchronized Swimming
	游泳	yóu yǒng	Swimming
	跳水	tiào shuǐ	Diving
	水球	shuǐ qiú	Water Polo
	艺术体操	yì shù tǐ cāo	Rhythmic Gymnastics
	皮划艇静水	pí huà tǐng jìng shuǐ	Canoe / Kayak Flatwater
	举重	jǔ zhòng	Weightlifting
	棒球	bàng qiú	Baseball
	射箭	shè jiàn	Archery
	柔道	róu dào	Judo
	摔跤	shuāi jiāo	Wrestling
	射击	shè jī	Shooting
	拳击	quán jī	Boxing
	足球	zú qiú	Football
	篮球	lán qiú	Basketball
	乒乓球	pīng pāng qiú	Table Tennis
	跆拳道	tái quán dào	Taekwondo
	马术	mǎ shù	Equestrian
	铁人三项	tiě rén sān xiàng	Triathlon
	现代五项	xiàn dài wǔ xiàng	Modern Pentathlon
	击剑	jī jiàn	Fencing
	蹦床	bèng chuáng	Trampoline
	排球	pái qiú	Volleyball
	沙滩排球	shā tān pái qiú	Beach Volleyball
	羽毛球	yǔ máo qiú	Badminton
	垒球	lěi qiú	Softball
	自行车	zì xíng chē	Cycling
	网球	wǎng qiú	Tennis
	手球	shǒu qiú	Handball
	曲棍球	qǔ gùn qiú	Hockey
	体操	tǐ cāo	Artistic Gymnastics
	田径	tián jìng	Athletics
	皮划艇激流回旋	pí huà tǐng jī liú huí xuán	Canoe / Kayak Slalom
	赛艇	sài tǐng	Rowing