Beijing 2022: Check out these Olympic and Paralympic Games' mascots
- Published
In 2022, Beijing, the capital city of China will host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. And here are the official mascots! For the Olympics it's the animal that China is most famous for - a panda, named Bing Dwen Dwen. For the Paralympic Games it's a red lantern - something you'll often see at Chinese celebrations - called Shuey Rhon Rhon.
Miraitowa (left) is the official mascot of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and Someity (right) is the official mascot of the 2020 Summer Paralympics. The design on both mascots was inspired by the official logo for next year's Games. Both fictional characters have various superpowers, such as teleportation.
Let's take a look back at some of the mascots from previous Games. No Olympic or Paralympic Games would be complete without huge cuddly mascots! White tiger Soohorang represented the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and black bear Bandabi represented the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games. Both events took place in South Korea in East Asia.
In 2016 we saw a lot of Vinicius, here in yellow, who represented the 2016 Olympics and Tom, in blue, who represented the 2016 Paralympics. Both took place in Brazil in South America.
The Winter Olympics had an unofficial mascot in 1968. Then from 1976, when the winter games were in Austria, Europe, they have always had an official mascot. These are the mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which took place in Sochi, Russia. They were a polar bear, a hare and a leopard.
In the same year Ray of Light, in the picture here, along with Snowflake, represented the Paralympics. The Paralympic Games got their first mascot in 1980 when the Games were held in Arnhem in the Netherlands.
If you remember the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics that took place in the UK, then you'll recognise Olympic mascot Wenlock, on the left, and Paralympic mascot Mandeville, on the right. Wenlock is named after the town in Shropshire which holds an event which inspired the modern Olympic Games. Wenlock's pal Mandeville is named after the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire where the idea for the Paralympic Games began.
Meet Quatchi and Miga, mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada. Furry brown Quatchi is a sasquatch, a character from local legend who lives in the forest and Miga is a sea bear, a mythical animal that is part whale and part bear. The 2010 Paralympic Games had a mascot called Sumi.
Mascots come in all shapes and sizes and the 2008 Olympics in China had five of them - Beibei, Jingjing, HuanHuan, Yingying and Nini. Linking the first part of their names forms the sentence “Welcome to Beijing” (Bei Jing Huan Ying Nin). A cow called Fu Niu Lele was the mascot of the 2008 Paralympic Games.
Meet Neve and Gliz, they were the mascots for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. In Italian “neve” means snow and “gliz” is “ghiaccio” shortened, which means ice.
Brother and sister Phevos and Athena represented the 2004 Olympic Games. They took place in Athens in Greece, where the first modern Olympics also took place, back in 1896.
Meet Powder, Coal and Copper - mascots of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, USA. More than 42,000 schoolchildren gave their advice on the mascots' names and then the organisers held a national vote to decide the final choices.
The first Olympic mascots of the 21st century were these three creatures - a duck-billed platypus, a kookaburra and a spiny anteater - representing the games in Sydney, Australia back in the year 2000. Their names were Syd, for Sydney, Olly for Olympics and Millie for millennium.
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