User:Moillet/List of Olympic mascots

Olympic mascots
The mascot has gained more and more importance over the Olympic Games. It represents the incarnation of the Olympics and its purpose is to transmit spirit, spreading the values highlighted at each edition of the Games. In addition, one of its roles is to give a joyful atmosphere and promote the history and culture of the host city. The first Olympic Summer Games mascot was officially presented in Munich 1972, whereas for the Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble 1968. Each mascot has a name and can be an animal or not which characterized the host countries of the Olympics.

Munich 1972
Elena Winschermann was the creator of the first official mascot during Olympic Summer Games. The mascot, Waldi, was a dachshund, and endurance, tenacity, and agility are its main features. The Olympic marathon in Munich has the same shape as the mascot.

Montreal 1976
According to Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux were the gods of hospitality. Canada chose a beaver as its mascot for the Olympics, Amik. The name selected means beaver in Algonquin, a language spoken by North American Indians in Canada.

Moscow 1980
Misha, a bear, was the mascot of Moscow in 1980. Its full name is Mikhail Potapych Toptygin and its creator was Victor Chizhikov. Viewers of a TV program about animals and readers of a sports newspaper were involved in choosing the mascot.

Los Angeles 1984
Sam, an eagle, was designed by C. Robert Moore and Walt Disney Productions for the Olympic Games in the United States. The first idea was to use a bear as a mascot, but it would have been the same as the previous Games.

Seoul 1988
Kim Hyun created Hodori, a tiger, the official mascot of Seoul 1988. "Ho" means tiger in Korean and "Dori" is a masculine diminutive. Hodori has its female version, Hosuni. The mascot's name was chosen from 2,2295 competition entries.

Barcelona 1992
The mascot Cobi represents a humanized Pyrenean dog. Cobi is the abbreviation of Barcelona's 92 Olympic Organising Committee and this decision was made because it was easy to pronounce in many languages. The creator of Coby was Javier Mariscal.

Atlanta 1996
Izzy was the official mascot of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Its original name was "Whatzit", but the final name was decided by 32 American children from 7 to 12. The creators of the mascot were John Ryan and DESIGNefx. A particularity of this mascot is that it is not an animal or an object.

Sydney 2000
It was the first time that three mascots were created officially for Olympic Games. Syd, a duck-billed platypus, Olly, a kookaburra, and Millie, an echidna or spiny anteater. Syd refers to Sydney, Olly to Olympic, and Millie to the new millennium.

Athens 2004
The Olympic Games Athens 2004 had two mascots, Phevos and Athena. Their names refer to Greek mythology, more precisely to Phoebos, which is another name for Apollo, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom and protector of Athens. The two mascots were created to embody a link between Ancient Greece and the modern Olympic Games. The mascot's shape comes from a typical terracotta doll, called "daidala", from the 7th century BC.

Beijing 2008
The mascot was composed of five natural elements. Their names are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. Putting together the first syllable of each name will form the sentence "Welcome to Beijing" (Bei Jing Huan Ying Nin).

London 2012
The town of Much Wenlock, Shropshire, was an inspiration for the Olympic mascot, Wenlock, in London 2012. The mascot's shape was designed by taking inspiration from the last drops of steel used to build the Olympic Stadium.

Rio 2016
The Olympic mascot in Rio 2016's name, Vinicius, celebrates the Brazilian musician Vinicius de Moraes.

Tokyo 2020
Miraitowa is the union of two Japanese words: "mirai", future, and "towa", eternity.

Grenoble 1968
This mascot, Shuss, was created one year before the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble and the Organisizing Committee chose its name.

Innsbruck 1976
Walter Pötsch was the creator of the official mascot of Innsbruck 1976, Schneemandl. The mascot's name means snowman in English.

Lake Placid 1980
Roni, the mascot, is a raccoon and the name derives from the language of the native people from the region of the State of New York and Lake Placid, Iroquoian.

Sarajevo 1984
The mascot of Sarajevo 1984 personifies a wolf which is very typical in the forest of the Dinaric Alps region. Predominant in the Yugoslavian fable, the wolf symbolizes courage, strength, and winter.

Calgary 1988
The official mascot were two: Hidy and Howdy. Hidy is an extension of "hi", whereas Howdy is shortened for "how do you do". The mascots are bears that populate the Artic regions of North America.

Albertville 1992
Magique, a little imp in the shape of a star and a cube, is the official mascot of Albertville 1992. The Organising Committee financed many studies in order to choose a name for the mascot, but without any result. The mascot's creator, Philippe Mairesse, re-reading his brief noticed that the word "magique" was recurrent, therefore the Organising Committee gave the name Magique. The original mascot should have been a mountain goat, but in the end, the imp had more success.

Lillehammer 1994
The official mascots are two children, Haakon and Kristin. Their names pay tribute to historical Norwegian figures from the 13th century: Håkon, King of Norway from 1217 to 1263, and Princess Kristin, his aunt. In addition, they represent the first human mascot form.

Nagano 1998
Four owls are the official mascots of Nagano 19998. Their names are Sukki, Nokki, Lekki, and Tsukki, and represent fire, air, earth, and water. They symbolize also four years that constitute an Olympiad.

Salt lake city 2002
Powder, a snowshoe hare, Copper, a coyote, and Coal, a black bear are the official mascots of Salt Lake. The mascots' names allude to Utah's natural resources, the land, and the snow. The Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger) is represented by the hare's speed, the coyote's ability to climb mountains, and the black bear's strength.

Turin 2006
Neve, which means snow in Italian, and Gliz are the official Olympic mascots of Turin 2006. Neve is a snowball and Gliz is an ice cube.

Vancouver 2010
The Canadian fauna and tales of The First Nations on the West Coast of Canada were an inspiration for the Vancouver Games mascots. Quatchi, a sasquatch, and, Miga, a sea bear are the mascots' names.

Sochi 2014
The Olympic Winter Games Sochi mascots are the hare, the Polar Bear, and the Leopard. Unlike the previous Olympic mascots, they do not have their names.

Pyeongchang 2018
Soohorang, a white tiger, is the official mascot of Pyeongchang 2018. "Sooho" means protection in Korean and "Rang" comes from "horang-i" which means tiger.

Beijing 2022
The official mascot of Beijing 2022 is Bing Dwen Dwen, a panda. Its name is made up of Bing (冰), the Chinese character for "ice", and Dwen Dwen (墩墩), is a nickname in China for children that expresses healthiness, cuteness, and indigenousness.

Youth Olympic Games Mascots
Unlike the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the Youth Olympic Games take place every two years and the main protagonists are young athletes.

Singapore 2010
Lyo and Merly are the official mascots of Singapore 2010. Lyo is an abbreviation of "Lion of the Youth Olympics", and the name of Merly comes from "mer", which means sea in French and the letters L and Y are a reference to "liveliness" and "youthfulness".

Innsbruck 2012
The official mascot of the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck 2012 is Joggl, an alpine chamois. Its name comes from the nickname "Joggl" for Jacob, a common name in the Tyrol region. A Facebook competition decided the mascot.

Nanjing 2014
Nanjinglele's shape and colors refer to the rain flower pebble, a particular natural feature in China. The suffix "lele" imitates the noise as they bang together and is pronounced like the Chinese word that means happiness.

Lillehammer 2016
Sjogg, a lynx, is the name chosen for the mascot in Lillehammer 2016. Its name means snow in Gudbrandsal, the valley where Lillehammer is located.

Buenos Aires 2018

 * 1) Pandi is the official mascot of Buenos Aires 2018. Its name is the scientific name of the jaguar (panthera onca) and the word "digital". The mascot is gender-free, neither female nor male.

Lausanne 2020
Yodli is the official mascot of the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne 2020. The mascot is a mix of three emblematic Swiss mountain animals: a cow, a goat, and a St Bernard dog. The creator of Yodli were 140 students of an art and communication school in Lausanne, Eracom.