List of Olympic mascots

See also: List of Paralympic mascots

The Olympic mascots are fictional characters, usually an animal native to the area or human figures, who represent the cultural heritage of the place where the Olympic and Paralympic Games are taking place. The mascots are often used to help market the Olympic Games to a younger audience, in particular toddlers and children.

Since the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France the Olympic Games have had a mascot. The first major mascot in the Summer Olympic Games was Misha in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Starting with the 2010 Vancouver mascots, the Olympic and Paralympic mascots have been presented together.

List of mascots

Games	City	Mascot	Character	Designer	Significance	Picture
1968 Winter Olympics	Grenoble	Schuss	Stylized skier	Mme Lafargue	(unofficial)
1968 Summer Olympics	Mexico City	El Jaguar Rojo de Chichen-Itza	Red jaguar		Based on a throne in the shape of a red jaguar in the "El Castillo" pyramid at Chichen Itzá.
		Paloma de la Paz	Dove	Eduardo Terrazas and Lance Wyman	A stylized white dove, it represented the slogan of the games, "Los juegos de la Paz", ("Games of the Peace").
1972 Summer Olympics	Munich	Waldi	Dachshund dog	Otl Aicher	A popular breed in Bavaria, it represented the attributes required for athletes - resistance, tenacity and agility.
1976 Winter Olympics	Innsbruck	Schneemann	Snowman		It represents the Games of Simplicity.	File:Olympische Winterspiele 1976 Innsbruck.jpg
1976 Summer Olympics	Montréal	Amik	Beaver	Yvon Laroche, Pierre-Yves Pelletier, Guy St-Arnaud and George Huel	One of the national symbols of Canada.	File:Mascotte JO 1976 Amik.jpg
1980 Winter Olympics	Lake Placid	Roni	Raccoon	Donald Moss	Its face design resembles the hat and goggles used by competitors. Named for the Adirondack mountain range.
1980 Summer Olympics	Moscow	Misha	Bear cub	Victor Chizhikov	The bear was the national symbol of the Soviet Union.
1984 Winter Olympics	Sarajevo	Vučko	Little wolf	Joze Trobec	Symbolizing the desire of humans to befriend animals. 1=According to the IOC, it helped change the common perception in the region of wolves as frightening and blood-thirsty.
1984 Summer Olympics	Los Angeles	Sam	Bald eagle	Robert Moore (from The Walt Disney Company)	The symbol of the United States.
1988 Winter Olympics	Calgary	Hidy and Howdy	Two polar bears	Sheila Scott	Both represent Western Canadian hospitality.
1988 Summer Olympics	Seoul	Hodori and Hosuni	Two tiger cubs	Hyun Kim	Common in Korean legends.	File:Seoulgamesmascot2005.JPG
1992 Winter Olympics	Albertville	Magique	Man-star/snow imp	Philippe Mairesse
1992 Summer Olympics	Barcelona	Cobi	A Catalan sheepdog	Javier Mariscal	Drawn in cubist style	File:1972cobi460.jpg
1994 Winter Olympics	Lillehammer	Håkon and Kristin	Two Norwegian children		Both are dressed in Viking clothes.	File:Kristin Haakon OLmaskot 1994.JPG
1996 Summer Olympics	Atlanta	Izzy	An abstract figure	John Ryan	The first computer-generated mascot.	File:Mascot Izzy.jpg
1998 Winter Olympics	Nagano	The Snowlets: Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki	Four owls		Representing the four major islands of Japan. The first syllable of each name combines phonetically to create the word "Snowlets".
2000 Summer Olympics	Sydney	Olly (from "Olympic")	Kookaburra	Jozef Szekeres Matthew Hatton	Representing the Olympic spirit of generosity.
		Syd (from "Sydney")	Platypus		Representing the environment and energy of the people of Australia.
		Millie (from "Millennium")	Echidna		Representing the Millennium. All three mascots are common wild animals found in Australia.
		Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat (unofficial; an allusion to "The Battlers' Prince")	Wombat	Paul Newell with Roy & HG	Created in protest against the commercialization of Olympic Mascots, this unofficial symbol ultimately became more popular than the official mascots.
2002 Winter Olympics	Salt Lake City	Powder (a.k.a. Swifter)	Snowshoe Hare	Steve Small, Landor Associates and Publicis	All three mascots are indigenous animals of the U.S. state of Utah, and are named after natural resources important to the state's economy. These animals are major characters in the legends of local American Indians, and these legends are reflected in the story of each mascot. To remind them of this heritage, all mascots wear a charm around their neck with a petroglyph image.
		Copper (a.k.a. Higher)	Coyote
		Coal (a.k.a. Stronger)	American black bear
2004 Summer Olympics	Athens	Athena and Phevos	Brother and sister	Spyros Gogos	Two modern children resembling ancient Greek dolls.
2006 Winter Olympics	Turin	Neve and Gliz	A humanized snowball and ice cube	Pedro Albuquerque		File:Neve and Gliz 2.jpg
2008 Summer Olympics	Beijing	The Fuwa: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, Nini	Fish, giant panda, Olympic Flame, Tibetan antelope, swallow	Han Meilin	The five names form the Chinese phrase "Beijing huan ying ni" (北京欢迎你), which means "Beijing welcomes you". Each representing an Olympic ring and Feng Shui element.	File:Mascots of the 2008 Summer Olympics (Shatin, Hong Kong).jpg
2010 Winter Olympics	Vancouver	Miga	Mythical sea bear	Meomi Design (a group of Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy)	Part orca and part kermode bear	File:Mascots Quatchi Miga and Sumi.jpg
		Quatchi	A sasquatch		From Canadian mythology
		Sumi	An animal guardian spirit		From Canadian mythology; has the wings of a Thunderbird, legs of an American black bear who wears a killer whale-like hat in an artistic style of Haida people.
		Mukmuk	A Vancouver Island Marmot		Not an official mascot, but their designated "sidekick".
2010 Summer Youth Olympics	Singapore	Lyo and Merly	Red male lion (Lyo), Blue female merlion (Merly)	Cubix International	The two characters are an allusion to the "Lion City" label of Singapore, and the Merlion, a national symbol of Singapore, respectively.	File:Lyo and Merly in Hong Kong.jpg
2012 Summer Olympics	London	Wenlock and Mandeville	Drops of steel with cameras for eyes.	Iris	Named after the village of Much Wenlock in Shropshire - which hosted a precursor to the modern Olympic Games in the 19th century. It represents the UK's start of the Industrial Revolution.
2012 Winter Youth Olympics	Innsbruck	Yoggl	Alpine Chamois	Florencia Demaría and Luis Andrés Abbiati of Argentina	Yoggl represents the character of the host city of these games
2014 Winter Olympics	Sochi	Bely Mishka (Polar Bear), Snow Leopard (leopard), Zaika (the dore hare)		Silvia Petrova, Vadim Pak, Oleg Serdechny	First mascots decided by popular vote.
2014 Summer Youth Olympics	Nanjing	LeLe(砳砳)	Rainflower Stone/Yuhua Stone (雨花石)	TBA	NANJINGLELE is inspired by a unique natural feature of the host city known as the “Rain-Flower Pebble” (also translated as “Riverstone”). The design of the mascot takes the typical shape and appearance of this stone but in a creative and artistic way, highlighting the colours from the emblem’s palette. The word ‘lele’ represents the sound of stones colliding together and is pronounced like the Chinese word meaning happiness or joy.	File:2014 Summer Youth Games mascot.jpg
2016 Summer Olympics	Rio de Janeiro	TBA	TBA	TBA
2016 Winter Youth Olympics	Lillehammer	TBA	TBA	TBA
2018 Winter Olympics	Pyeongchang	TBA	TBA	TBA
2018 Summer Youth Olympics	Buenos Aires	TBA	TBA	TBA
2020 Summer Olympics	Tokyo	TBA	TBA	TBA

See also

• Olympic symbols
• Paralympic mascots
• Paralympic symbols

References

Notes

External links

• Official site of the Olympic Movement - Images and information on every game since 1896
• OlympicHistory.info: Mascots Template:Ru icon
• Canadian Olympic Mascots 1976 - 2010