Homopolymers and diblock copolymers that contain maltose or glucose residues have been prepared by ring-opening metathesis polymerization of norbornene derivatives using a molybdenum-alkylidene initiator, Mo-(CHCM2Ph)(N-2,6-iPr(2)C(6)H(3))(OtBu)(2) (A). These polymerizations took place not only in a living fashion ((M) over bar (w)/(M) over bar (n)= < 1.2) but also with almost quantitative initiation. Two types of ruthenium initiators, (Cy3P)(2)RuCl2(CHPh) (B) and (IMesH(2))(Cy3P)RuCl2(CHPh) (C), have also been used to compare initiator performance under the same conditions.