Olympic mascots in years

The Olympic Mascots have been a main element of the olympic images for years, a mascot should always be able to concentrate all the olympic spirit, communicate the concepts of each Olympic Games and promote the history and culture of the host city.

Given the upcoming Beijing Games, I decided to do an insight of the olympic mascots throughout their history and here is what I found out starting from the first one... a list of names pictures and a bit of history for each:

Waldi - 1972 Summer Games, Munich Germany

Waldi the Dachsund was very popular this year, specially for being the first ever, but he also has the qualities indispensable to an athlete: resistance, tenacity and agility. He has some of the pastel colors from the olympics.

Amik - 1976 Summer Games, Montreal Canada

The next mascot was a beaver named Amik, the name comes from an indian language of Canada and it means beaver. It simbolizes hard work. In my opinion the worst mascot of history.

Misha - 1980 Summer Games, Moscow Russia

It has been described as the cutest mascot in olympic games history Misha was developed by renowned illustrator of children's books Victor Chizikov. It became an international success instantly. 

Sam the Eagle - 1984 Summer Games, Los Angeles, USA

Sam was designed by Walt Disney and it is a cartooned eagle with the main american characteristics, it wears the same clothes as legendary Uncle Sam and has the typical colors of the USA. The bald eagle, also has been named the official animal of the USA. This is the year that the commercial use of olympic mascots was initiated. 

Hodori - 1988 Summer Games, Seoul Korea

This little tiger was designed wit typical oriental colors and it was an amicable tiger, which portrays the friendly and hospitable traditions of Koreans. Ho is derived from the korean word for tiger and Dori is diminutive for boys. It wore the olympic rings around its neck like a medal while sporting a traditional Korean dance hat on its head.

Cobi - 1992 Summer Games, Barcelona Spain

This mascot, which I like to call 'the naked mascot' for obvious reasons, was a dog named Cobi. The committee for the olympics these year had even produced a TV series in which Cobi could communicate with the spirits of the games. It was created by the Valencian artist Javier Mariscal. 

Izzy - 1996 Summer Games, Atlanta Georgia

Izzy was the first mascot designed by computer,

 and it was also the first amorphous mascot with an abstract fantasy figure. Supposedly the name Izzy is derived from "What is it" because no one seemed to know exactly what Izzy was.

Syd, Ollie and Millie - 2000 Summer Games, Sydney Australia

They are three native australian animals who represent earth, air and water. Olly represents the olympic spirit of generosity; Syd, represents the environment and captures the energy of Australia and its people; and Millie, is a techno whiz and information guru, with all the facts and figures at her fingertips. This is the first time multiple mascots were used, as well as different sex mascots. 

Athena and Phevos - 2004 Summer Games, Athens Greece

This olympic mascots with their whacking feet, long necks and puny heads, one was colored in deep yellow and the other one in blue, they were based on thousand of year old dolls who where discovered at archeological sites in Greece. Supposedly in greek mythology they were brother and sister, named after the god of light and music and the goddess of wisdom.

The Fuwa - 2008 Summer Games, Beijing China

The Fuwa means good luck dolls and are comprised of five members which include Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. Each of these seem like a cute name, but when put together they sound identical to the phrase 'Beijing welcomes you'. The five figures and their colors also represent the five olympic rings.

So as we can see, the challenge of making an olympic mascot apparently always involve some kind of whacky, crazy story, sometimes magical, sometimes mythological... and In my opinion we have yet to see a great one, some of them have been good, but must of them I think have been just plain...

saluuuuu