Mascots in Olympics 1968 – 2022

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.

Mascots are most often used for event branding as good mascots are remembered and readily linked with the sporting event itself. Mascots are also easy for children to approach so they can feel more present at the sports event.

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