For several decades now, mascots have been a permanent fixture in major sporting events. We listed all the mascots in summer and winter Olympic Games.
The Olympics mascots have almost always been animal themed. The first official mascot was a dog named ”Waldi”, who was the event mascot for the Munich Olympics in 1972. Before this, the Winter Games of Grenoble in 1968 also had an unofficial mascot that was designed overnight.
Today, designing the mascots is no small side note to event planning – large advertising agencies are also employed in mascot design. For instance, the mascot for the Sochi Olympics was chosen via an international competition that produced more than 24,000 mascot proposals.
Especially during this millennium, the mascot comprises more than one character.
Summer and winter Olympics mascots 1968 – 2022
Olympics | Mascot´s name | Details |
Grenoble 1968 | Shuss | A red-head icon with S-shaped body on skis |
München 1972 | Waldi | A Multicolored-dog, first official Olympic Games mascot |
Innsbruck 1976 | Schneemann | A snowman wearing Tyrolean hat |
Montreal 1976 | Amik | A black beaver |
Lake Placid 1980 | Roni | A skating raccoon |
Moscow 1980 | Misha | A smiling bear |
Sarajevo 1984 | Vučko | A wolf |
Los Angeles 1984 | Sam | An eagle wearing U.S. colored hat |
Calgary 1988 | Hidy & Howdy | Two polar bears wearing cowboy costumes |
Soul 1988 | Hodori | A tiger |
Albertville 1990 | Magique | A star-shaped icon with red hat |
Barcelona 1992 | Cobi | A dog |
Lillehammer 1994 | Haakon & Kristin | Two real people |
Atlanta 1996 | Izzy | First Olympic mascot which is not an animal or a human |
Nagano 1998 | Sukki, Nokki, Lekki & Tsukki | Owls “the snowlets” |
Sydney 2000 | Syd, Olly & Millie | A duck-billed platypus, an anteater and a kookaburra |
Salt Lake City 2002 | Powder, Coal & Copper | A hare, a coyote a black bear |
Athena 2004 | Phevos & Athena | An ancient Greek dolls |
Torino 2006 | Neve & Gliz | A snowball and an ice cube |
Beijing 2008 | Beibei, Jingjing & Huanhuan, Yingying & Nini | Figures which represents 5 natural elements |
Vancouver 2010 | Quatchi & Miga | Mythical animal figures |
London 2012 | Wenlock | Figure which represent a steel |
Sochi 2014 | The Hare, the Polar bear & the Leopard | As named |
Rio 2016 | Vincius | A mix of different Brazilian animals |
PyeongChang 2018 | Soohorang | A white-tiger |
Tokyo 2020 | Miraitowa | A figure which possess superpowers |
Beijing 2022 | Bing Dwen Dwen | A panda wearing an astronaut suit |