The first mascot in Olympic history was born in 1968. 72 years after the birth of the modern Olympic Games, at the 10th Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, the cartoon snowman Schuss opened the precedent for Olympic mascots in the Alps in southeastern France. After the first official Olympic mascot appeared at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, the mascot of each Olympic Games has become a major element of the Olympic image.
Schuss has an exaggeratedly large head and a slender and hard body. He is a strong-willed elf, and his red face shows the joy of sports. Today, the cartoon skiing man who was born due to an innovative move by French Olympic Committee official Waudil is over 50 years old, and his “family members” have continued for more than ten generations.
When Schuss was born, mascots were only optional on the Olympic stage. However, since the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, mascots have become a mandatory action required by each Olympic Organizing Committee. At the 12th Winter Olympics held in Innsbruck, Austria in 1976, mascots appeared again. The Austrian snowman Schneemann, a symbol of purity, to some extent inherited the creative inspiration of his predecessor Schuss.
In 1980, the Winter Olympics moved to Lake Placid, USA, and raccoon Roni became the new mascot. Four years later, at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia, the mascot was also based on mammals. The Sarajevo people, who had long used wolves as the symbol of their city, finally chose the little wolf Vucko as the mascot, implying the brave and fearless fighting spirit of the participating athletes. At the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, Canadians changed the “lonely” mode of previous generations of mascots and launched two mascots for the first time in a single Winter Olympics – polar bears Hidy and Howdy. They wore folk costumes from western Canada and went out in pairs, expressing their warm welcome to people from all over the world.
In 1992, the Winter Olympics returned to France, where the mascot was born. At the last Winter Olympics held in the same year as the Summer Olympics, the French once again showed their creativity to the world. The star-shaped “Maggie” composed of the blue, white and red colors of the French flag became the first non-animal mascot in the history of the Olympics. “Maggie” means magic, illusion and magic in French. According to the French themselves, the Magi came to the earth from space to participate in this winter event. At the same time, the 1992 Winter Paralympics was held in the same year as the Winter Olympics for the first time in history, and the mascot Alpy, which was based on the mountain, was on the historical stage for the first time.
The 17th Winter Olympics held in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994 was held two years apart from the Summer Olympics for the first time in history, and it was also the first time that a mascot with a human image appeared. In a historical legend in Norway, Prince “Hakon” and Princess “Kristin” helped Norway achieve peace in the turbulent Middle Ages. Therefore, when the Winter Olympics came to Norway, the two mascots were named Hakon and Kristin. In the subsequent 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan and 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in the United States, the mascots returned to the animal world in terms of creative prototypes. The former was four little owls named Inuki, Noshiro, Jiaxi and Tsuki, which was also the largest number of mascots in the history of the Winter Olympics; while the Americans chose snowshoe hares, North American prairie wolves and American black bears, and the mascot of the Winter Paralympics that year was an otter named “Otto”.
In the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, the Italians created the ice dolls “Grizzi” and “Neve” as mascots in an abstract way; the mascot of the Winter Paralympics was the snowflake Aster, which has a light body like a snowflake, and has the color and structure of a snowflake, showing the spirit of the Paralympics, sublimating the sports achievements of participants and transcending their own disabilities. The light and dynamic appearance enables it to perform various movements in the Paralympic events.
After Turin, the mascots of the three Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, Sochi, Russia, and Pyeongchang, South Korea all chose animals as prototypes. At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in Canada, the mascot “Miga”, who loves skiing, was inspired by killer whales and white spirit bears, and the hockey-loving “Quitchi” was a North American Sasquatch with a long beard and earmuffs. At the same time, the Vancouver Winter Olympics also had an unofficial mascot – a groundhog called “Mako Mako”; the one who appeared on the stage of the Winter Paralympics that year was “Sumi”, a flying animal patron saint with thunderbird wings.
The mascots of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia were selected by voting. They were a snow leopard holding a skateboard, a white bear wearing a scarf, and a rabbit who can sing and dance. They also represent three positions on the podium of the Winter Olympics. In 2018, the Koreans chose white tigers and Asian black bears as the mascots of the Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics respectively.
The mascots of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are two plush toys called “Frigi”.
The design of the mascots of this Olympics is inspired by the traditional French Phrygian hat. Both mascots have big cartoon eyes, and wear the 2024 Paris Olympic Games emblem, the five-ring logo, the Paralympic Games emblem, and the logo of the International Paralympic Committee on their chests. Their feet are also different – the right foot of the Paralympic mascot is a black “blade” prosthesis. The color scheme is mainly red, supplemented by blue and white, which matches the colors of the French flag. “We chose creative shapes instead of animals,” said Tony Estanguet, chairman of the Paris Olympic Committee. The Phrygian hat is an important symbol of the French Republic and has a long history in France. It was worn by the Phrygians in Asia Minor in ancient times. After the start of the French Revolution, it evolved into a “symbol of the pursuit of freedom.” Today, the national symbol of the French Republic, the goddess Marianne, wears this kind of hat on her head. Its shape is widely seen on coins and stamps, and related sculptures and paintings are placed in town halls across France.