Which Sport’S Original Mascot Was It?

As a Rio local I absolutely adored Vinicius and Tom! Vinicius would also show up during random matches dressed up as the sport they were paying and terrorize everyone, it was Hilarious. I also can’t forget the core memory of Vinicius dressed up as Gisele Bündchen, they were so fun and one of my favourite memories of the games!

Japanese here and boy the degree of everyone’s disappointment when they announced Miraitowa & Someity was immeasurable because most people actually preferred 1:12:39 Kitsune & Tanuki, and 1:12:42 Komainu & Shisa proposals more than Miraitowa & Someity, and the possible reason why kids chosen them was because they had superpowers (the other 4 characters didn’t…..for very obvious reasons)

A few stray thoughts about Vučko (which, apparently, is pronounced “voosh-ko,” and his name literally translates to “Wolfie”)… 1. As per Wikipedia – in Yugoslavian culture (like most places) the wolf was generally seen as a ferocious, villainous character – so having Vučko be a friendly, likable wolf character actually rehabilitated the image of the wolf in the public eye. 2. It seems like, in the 1970s and early 1980s, designers were still trying to figure out whether an Olympic mascot was supposed to be more of a geometric, modernist logo like Waldi or Amik, or a fun cartoon character like Schneemandl or Misha. It looks like they tried to split the difference with Vučko, who still has those clean, geometric shapes and lines, while still maintaining the poses and facial expressions of a cartoon character (though I kind of prefer the more hand-drawn, slightly Chuck Jones-y look of the animated version). 3. I remember seeing articles and image galleries of abandoned Olympic sites in the present day, and since the area had gone through the Bosnian War, there were plenty of pictures from Sarajevo. And there, in some places, amongst the graffiti and crumbling concrete, you can see Vučko’s friendly face, happily welcoming you to the now-decaying site, like an Olympic Ozymandias. (“‘I am Vučko, King of Wolves! Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and have fun!’ Nothing beside remains…”) You threw me down this rabbit hole, Graham. You did this to me. I hope you’re happy.

Hello. Your article appeared in my feed over here in Japan, and in defense of Miraitowa and Someity (Tokyo 2020), I wanna point out that they have an insane cult following 2 years after the games took place. There was an anniversary event in July of 2023 where fans were able to meet and greet with the two, and participants had to wait in line for free tickets to get a picture with them that were scheduled to be handed out at 1PM. They were gone by 11AM because enough fans (mostly adults, ironic considering the selection process) were already in line early and they had to give them out early to avoid heatstroke cases! This is a really Japanese phenomenon and because “forgettable” was your conclusion, I thought I’d just point that out. These fans are really remembering a specific aspect of the Games very fondly and with so much controversy surrounding Tokyo 2020, the mascots have really helped cement their legacy.

Asked my korean husband about the ’88 mascot and he remembered the boy and girl both by name so definitely not hodori in drag haha hosuni seemed to be most featured in a gold or jade statue set with them in wedding outfits. The two of them are even standing very tall at the entrance to the Seoul Olympic museum right now

Cobi is still a cultural touchstone in Barcelona life (there are tons of small grafittis of him everywhere) The olympics marked a before and after in the city and they’re regarded as a great moment in the city’s history. And (like misha) he was also released to the air on a silver boat at the closing ceremony, very pretty actually. Also, its funny to see him as a bullfighter, given that bullfighting is forbidden at catalonia and is a very “spanish” thing, opposite to the catalan culture

I’m gonna be honest, as someone who didn’t know he existed until I watched this, I LOVE Izzy in a “this guy looks like the mascot for a children’s edutainment series about teaching kids about the internet” kind of way. He’s just whimsical and nonsensical enough in design that I now treasure him dearly, thank you for this gift

Imagine being nine years old in 1996, living in Atlanta.. Yes, I was flooded with all the Izzy merch, as was every kid at my school. Edit: You’re not alone, Graham. I too recall Izzy getting kidnapped. Someone would say they spotted Izzy in a crowd at a Coke party, or on top of the Swissgear pavilion. They might have had little faith in their audience, but more likely I remember it being a pretext for the ‘detectives’ to visit all the advertiser stalls and get a cheeky extra commercial in.

im russian and im in animation college rn and last week i visited a lecture by the director of Баба Яга Против (Baba Yaga is opposed) (24:02). the director is a very nice 82 yo man and is suprisingly liberal 🙂 thanks for mentioning soviet cartoons they were a really huge part of my childhood and one of the reasons i went into animation school

As a Calgarian old enough to have attended Olympic events, I loved Hidi and Howdy to bits as a kid and therefore, still do. My grandparents worked at the “Bear Cave” which coordinated their appearances and were along for much of the torch run so my bias runs strong. Here’s where I pray somehow Graham reads this. When the games were over the suits were disassembled into little pieces and given to staff as a thank you. So I have a Howdy right paw. And now you have to know that there are disembodied parts of Hidy and Howdy scattered across who knows where. 😀

As someone who was an Australian child who went to see the Sydney Paralympic Games, meeting Lizzie was the highlight of my time there. I still have merch with the Olympic and Paralympic mascots on it kicking around in my house. So iconic. EDIT: Asked my mum if she remembered Schuss (she’s French was would have been about 7 at the time of the Olympics). She very much remembered Schuss, with very fond memories.

It was more than just a threat at Atlanta, it killed two and injured over a hundred. Here’s more info on Hodori: Hodori was also the 1986 Asian Games mascot! The Amur tiger was historically found across Korea, though today their range is mostly just in the Russian Far East. Tigers are important in Korean culture. Korea is known as the land of tigers because Korea is said to resemble one! In the myth of Dangun, the founder of Gojoseon, a bear and a tiger wished to become human beings. The bear turned into a woman by observing the commandments to eat only mugwort and garlic for 100 days in a cave, but the tiger could not endure the ordeal and ran off, failing to realize its wish. The bear gave birth to Dangun. The Sangmo hat is an ancient hat. The origin of it can be found in the history of the jeon-lip. Jeonp-lip is a black cap of the sangmo. The origin of the jeon-lip is the jeolpung on the head. Jeolpung is the basic type of crown cap of the Korean Three Kingdoms Period, and used various ornaments such as flowers, branches, and bird feathers to represent the region and its identity. The old style of sangmo can be found in the mural paintings of Goguryeo tombs which adorn the feathers of birds on soldiers’ heads.

The wear on the toy in the first shot of Shuss makes him even more upsetting because instead of just being a red ball it looks a bit like muscle, like he had his face removed. Howdy and Hidy also have a unique distinction of being mascots who are also instructions, in that when the walkarounds say howdy you’ll want to hidey.

If you’re wondering why the Sydney Olympic mascots didn’t feature a Kangaroo, it’s (probably) because the Mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne was Matilda the Kangaroo and they didn’t want to double up, although we’d really be the only ones who cared. Matilda was a giant statue that built for the opening ceremony that winked, wiggled it’s ears, and deployed about 2 dozen kids from it’s pouch. After the games the statue lived at a water park in Queensland halfway up the country and now lives at a truck stop on the Bruce Highway. Also, Lizzie the lizard was voiced by Olivia Newton-John.

Of note, for the 2008 Beijing mascots, China (and more) recognizes the 5 elements philosophy instead of the Hellenistic 4 elements. They are fire, water, wood, metal (sometimes translated as gold), and air. Each mascot seems to be associated to an element — though I can’t find any source to back that up.

Honestly the whole Misha story is wild to me, in particular as a kid growing in Costa Rica I vividly remember perusal the little bear Misha anime spanish dub not knowing it was an Olympic mascot, Latin America has a wild story of old animes being dubbed and transmitted on public tv between the 80’s and 90’s. Bonus fun fact around the 80 Costa Rica had a lot of soft ties with the Soviet union including scholarships and public projects so having an anime transmitted to children from that time strikes me incredible hilarious

Fun fact: miraitowa & someity became extremely popular in Japan after the games ended & its even one of the few mascots that still appear regularly every month or year. In fact the mascots recently made an appearance this summer for the second anniversary of those games & many people are trying too make them an official mascot of the prefecture. It was quite fascinating & very cool article !

Your narration is a relief from the extra-hyper, meme-spouting article essayists. You allow some room for people to form their own opinions on the mascots, and aren’t dead dogmatic like Buzzfeed or Watchmojo. The info on the mascots’ cultural inspirations and unexpected crossovers also made this article great. Also also, I like your “presenting” graphics. The thing with a shadow on a backdrop you can rest your eyes on. Thank you!

This was phenomenal. And i almost cried when I saw Cobi animation dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese, because it was a cartoon I watched as a kid. And also about Misha, if I was Sochi committee I would put it again as mascot, Misha is the perfect definition of an Olympic Mascot even because it’s the first one I remember, even being born closer to Los Angeles games. And as a Brazilian, the Rio Mascots are great, the funny part is that they were created in an animation company based in São Paulo, the Rio de Janeiro “rival” city here in Brazil.

I like how there was a requirement for some of them to be appealing to kids, because I only remember two of these: the Rio ones (I’m brazilian, so duh) and the Beijing ones, because I had to draw those damn things in varying sizes when I was in middle school and I loved every second of it, I loved their design and had them as plushies too. Too bad they didn’t inspire me to practice any sports, though.

(For some reason my comment didn’t go through so I’m trying again.) I’m surprised that you didn’t mention how Mariscal still draws Cobi to this day, especially since he drew a picture of an older Cobi for Barcelona 1992’s 30th anniversary. You can find a lot of his newer art by searching “cobi mariscal” or by looking at the store on his website or his social media accounts. Anyways, the red jaguar at 9:41 isn’t from the Olympics but is instead from the 1990 Central American and Caribbean Games. His name is Balam and he has a female counterpart named Yutzil. Also, there are two more episodes of Eagle Sam on the Internet Archive but as far as I know they haven’t been subtitled yet.

I love the DJ Phrygian on the Arc de Triomphe, very cute. I like the idea of there being an ecosystem of these characters that (at least in my head canon) are some kind of Olympic mascot hivemind, sure they will mostly be represented by the two main ones, but the art of them all partying is very good, and i think its a neat idea that this isnt necessarily just “one” character as a mascot. Almost like the Phryges are creatures that have lived somewhere in France all throughout history and now are coming out of the woodwork because its time for them to do their duty as mascots.

Oh right, Izzy. One other detail about how well we in Atlanta ran the Olympics was in the pamphlets for tourists giving advice on the best spots in the city for eating different cuisines. For some reason, the leading spot for Italian was said to be The Olive Garden. Also, we did some excellent work making use of the various event sites after the games were finished.

I’ve absolutely never been invested in the olympics, but I remember in Rio 2016 I fucking LOVED Tom. I thought he was the cutest guy ever and I saw one of the announcers with his plushie and wanted it SO BADDD. I even drew him in class (I drew constantly tbf). So,, fat W for whoever designed him, you clearly succeeded

Graham, thank you so much for finally letting me know what Izzy’s name was. My dad had won free tickets to the Atlanta games throw work, and I had found some pins of Izzy and other promotional stuff in my room as a kid. I’ve been insanely confused by what Izzy was to this day and thought he was just a funny cartoon character.

From what I can gather from some googling, the kappa at 7:20 isn’t exactly an Olympic mascot. Rather, it is a mascot of sorts for the Great Tokyo Festival, first held on January 10th, 1955, on the 500th anniversary of the founding of Tokyo (then called Edo). The festival was then repeated every year until 1982, and these sets of pins seem to have been released as mementos. The set in the picture is from the festival’s 25th anniversary in 1980, but many other versions exist. Each pin corresponds to a specific year (written below it in the Japanese calendar), and the Olympic Kappa is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the pin for the festival of the year Showa 39, also known as 1964. So really, what we are looking at here is a whole family of mascots for a different event, one of whom ends up also, in a roundabout way, being an unofficial Olympic mascot. (The Great Tokyo Festival incidentally still exists, but now goes by the name Furusato Matsuri, or Hometown Festival.)

I have loved the Olympics since 1996, and I know more about mascots than my friends, and ordered Jingjing plushie from China. but wow, now I know so much more! I really loved Izzy as an American 10-year-old, but I also remember being told the story that it was designed by a kid, and so the strange wonky design was always innocent and joyful to me. I loved the big sneakers on the Izzy plushie I had as a kid. Now I’m a bit bummed out that it was just designed by some guy. In 2009, I got to hold a real panda for a minute in China that they had named Huanhuan, after the mascot. They named a whole litter after the mascots. LOVE the pictogram of Jingjing with a gun, really looks like a remoreseless marskman. So glad you highlighted all the gun poses throughout history. I don’t mind them going up to 2-5 mascots, but I hate when the two mascots are gendered boy and girl – much better to split for a better reason like flora/fauna or technology/nature. Thanks again, this was fantastic.

The bonus curly hair caught my attention. This happened to my uncle many, many years ago, and it supposedly happens *a lot*, but I don’t quite know why. If your hair starts out as vaguely wavy to begin with, and you shave it (or equivalent), it often will grow back curly. In my uncle’s case, it stuck and it remains curly to this day, some 40 years after it grew back. Just one of those weird things that happens.

I love this article! I consider myself an Olympic superfan and you found things I’ve never seen or even heard of! Great work. One thing to mention: the Atlanta paralympic mascot Blaze, a phoenix, is considered a symbol of the city as it was largely burned to the ground during the civil war and had to rebuild itself from the ashes. Most of us who were living there at the time felt it would have been a much better Olympic mascot than Izzy, but eh, we got what we got. I’m glad we got Blaze anyway. Please consider doing more mascot/logomark articles, would love to see a series on other corporate or sports mascots. World Cup mascots, for example, or early corporate mascots (modern corporations seem to shy away from them as too childish). Thanks!

im from vancouver and i was 11 when the olympics were here. i have so many fond memories of them, especially the song. at first it was so swelling and emotional and beautiful, but after a few times hearing it it got old real fast lol. i still have fondness for the song tho i didnt know that the mascots were so meaningful though. like i knew what they were, and i also have the sumi plush, but i didnt know that sumi was not only the paralympic mascot, but that vancouver was the first olympic host city to have the paralympic mascot be on the same stage and have the same importance as the olympic ones. it really does embody the spirit of my city, which ive observed as always trying to lift up and make life better for minorities and the disabled wherever possible. even if the government doesnt make us feel that way, i really do feel it in the people that live here. i’ve volunteered at youth clinics and been in the system awhile – people here really do have this energy of wanting to step into the future and make the world a better place than when we found it. i guess learning about sumi just made me emotional because of this fact. they embody that exact spirit.

Some other curious facts regarding Hodori and Soohorang/Bandabi Soohorang and Bandabi, much like Sam, “survived” in a way. The province of Gangwon which hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics loved them so much they wanted to make them the mascots of the region once the games were over. But since the characters were already copyrighted by the IOC, they opted to make a couple of characters called Beom-E & Gom-E (범이 곰이), which were basically somewhat related to them (probably their nephews or something) and their designs were heavily inspired by the originals. They were actually very liked even by overseas fans from countries like Japan and were helping promote tourism to the provine but, unfortunately, it seems the IOC took notice and didn’t like the similarities and Gangwon province was forced to redesign them in mid 2023 (they’re still a tiger and a bear but now look less similar to the original Soohorang and Bandabi, and the new characters were met with a very negative reception). Which I find kinda dumb, considering the IOC doesn’t really do anything at all with the mascots once the events are over. Probably because the province is hosting the Youth Winter Olympics in a few months, the IOC didn’t like seeing very similar characters to the 2018 ones. Its a big shame, because Soohorang/Bandabi were universally beloved in the province as well for the rest of the country, but the IOC got seemingly angry at the province to the point Gangwon had to remove their existence quiety such as silently removing sculptures of Beom-E and Gom-E.

I have vague recollections of my grandparents having a Sam Eagle ashtray in their RV for years and years. It would make sense in retrospect if it was actually him, because my grandma’s brother did move from our small town in the middle of Alberta to Los Angeles at some point, and I’m sure they swapped souvenirs/gifts and whatnot during visits with each other. Just, kind of neat having fuller context on a vague memory from years ago. Edit, now that I’ve gotten that point of the article: My brother actually got tapped to be part of the ice-making crew for Pyeongchang, so of course he brought us back a bunch of little souvenirs, so I have a magnet of Soohorang tucked away somewhere. Shame that I don’t think he got much merch with Bandabi on it, though.

I’m British, and now that I’m older I do think that Wenlock and Manderville were slightly odd choices, and the London branding in general was certainly…. Something. But I was 13 in 2012, I was lucky enough to go to the Olympic stadium with my mum to watch the Paralympic athletics, and man I loved those weird little metal guys so much. I loved all the merch in the shops and seeing the mascot suits wondering around in the Olympic park. My sister was 6, and she ADORED them, she collected so many little figures and plushies. I still have a big plush of Manderville (coloured like the Union Jack because- patrotism I guess lmao) in my bedroom. The designs are a bit weird, yes, but they hold so much nostalgia for me that I can never truly hate them. 🤷‍♂

Late to the party but: Beijing 2008 was the first Olympics I was conscious for (I was 7) and so those 5 little guys are very nostalgic to me. I remember the McDonalds plush versions of them that came with a happy meal. But you only got one, so you had to buy many happy meals to get all 5. I just remember all the merch surrounding them, so they will always have a very special place in my heart.

Very happy to have all this in one long, but still comprehensive article! As a mascot enthusiast I thought I had decent passing knowledge of the Olympic mascots, but you revealed stuff I didn’t even know about! (like I know Brazil had an additional mascot to represent the home team during Rio 2016, named Ginga. But I did NOT know about the Tokyo 2020 mascots having a “unofficial” fusion) lol I’m just waiting on the Mario & Sonic Olympic games to start involving the mascots more, make them PLAYABLE or something!

I was really looking forward to this one, and it did not disappoint. You really did your research, and I learned so many interesting details. One thing I’ve enjoyed viewing in recent Olympics have been the articles that Olympic committees make introducing the characters. The one for Vancouver was excellent and is my favorite. I also liked the 2012 miniseries about the London mascots. I think it helped give them a personality. The last two episodes were pretty good. The introduction for the Parisian 2024 mascots is also an excellent article .

this article made me have a special interest in the mascots, so i’m here to talk about some of my memories and opinions: -wenlock and mandeville! they are double trouble and i love them so much. i remember thinking that they looked like the tombliboos from in the night garden upon first sight, i had a london 2012 taxi with the logo and one of them on the sides along with a car that changed colour when you dipped it in water, and i can almost recall seeing worse-for-wear plushies of them in several places, like someone’s house or office -i also remember seeing miraitowa and someity (though i never knew thair names) around when tokyo 2020 was there and i remember seeing the footage on the tvs in a display window in an electronics store in leeds -some other favourites i’ve garnered are ollie, syd and millie, the snowlets, sam the eagle, izzy and athena and phevos whom i specifically adore -i remember liking the luge and the skeleton at what i believe was sochi 2014 and i think for pyeongchang 2018 my primary school canteen had powdered mini doughnuts on the dessert menu thank you for changing my life and view on all the olympic mascots, i truly appreceate it

I ADORED your articles on the mascots and emblems! I now wonder if the natural progression isn’t for you to dive headfirst into the pictograms that are associated with the individual competitions. I think I’d love to see a lengthy article on that!! Stylistically there’re a lot of cool choices in there, some of them very far from the styles of both emblem and mascot. Plus you can pad with info on the sports, on changes to the sports (the many forks of ski sports for instance). You make this long-format stuff really pleasant to take in, and I like your editing. Things move along, you don’t dwell on stuff, there’s always something weird coming up next so I end up pausing and rewinding to take a second look… 10/10! Thanks for your content!

54:21 The commentators who introduced Fatso returned for the Salt Lake City Winter Games and brought another unofficial mascot… albeit one more for the Australian viewers, and it came with a great backstory. Australia had been cursed, it would seem, to perform poorly at the winter olympics. It all went back to the cross country skier Cedric Sloane, who competed for Australia in Oslo but did not finish his race. The presenters made up the story that midrun he accidentally impaled a seagull with his pole, cursing the Australian Winter Olympic team for years to come. Hence our Utah mascot was… Cedric the Stabbed Seagull. The curse would only be lifted when an Australian won gold or passed the bad luck to someone else. Both these things happened at the same time, during the final of the speedskating event won by Steven Bradbury.

In Dutch there is a bit of more info about the squirrels of the 1980 Paralympics. They were choosen because the games were partly held in the forested area of Papendal. In that forest squirrels are very common. They represent a male and female squirrel. The choice of squirrels was not made by the public, but the design was. The reason why they choose the winning design was because they were nidded and a couple.

Enjoyed the article, it was far more interesting than I thought it would be! I did want to note, though, there was more than a threat during the Atlanta games, there was a bombing (Centennial Olympic Park). While I don’t know about a pretend kidnapping plot with Izzy on NBC it’s possible that, after the real act of terrorism, they ended it abruptly and scrubbed it from the record. That said a fictitious kidnapping story at the Olympics seems like it would also draw complaints because of Munich as well so… perhaps it would be better if it is just some weird completely misremembered thing.

1976: “Schneemandl” is not so much making the word into a name – it’s a dialectal version of a diminutive, so it would translate as “little snowman” (similar with “Sonnenweiberl”). 1984: The closest approximation in English for the Sarajevo mascot’s name is “Voochko”. Short “oo” like in “foot”, and the c with the wedge over it is a “tch” sound.