The XXII Winter Olympic Games 2014 will be held in the Russian resort city of Sochi. They will be held from 7 to 23 February and will become the second Olympic Games in history held in Russia.
In 1980, the Summer Olympics took place in Moscow. Its symbol was Mishka, who flew into the sky at the closing ceremony to the tears of sentimental Soviet citizens. "Goodbye, goodbye," - Mishka sang goodbye, and everyone believed that he would return.
When choosing a mascot for the Sochi Olympics, an all-Russian vote was held for the candidate symbols through a variety of channels: the Internet, telephone, etc. The collection of ideas for creating a mascot began in Russia on September 1, 2010, and then the mascot of the Olympics, according to the VTsIOO poll, most of the respondents wanted to see the bear cub.
As a result, 11 candidates were nominated for voting, including a brown bear. Far from being as touching as 30 years ago, and therefore he took 8th place, far from the top three. Thus, in 2014 he will definitely not return.
The leader according to preliminary polls of the same VTsIOM was Santa Claus. This popular referendum was crowned by SMS-voting on the air of the First Channel. During the Talismania show, all the applicants, among whom, in addition to those named, were images of the Bunny, Leopard, Sun, White Bear, Fire Boy, Snow Girl, Matryoshka, Dolphin, Bullfinch, received three minutes of airtime for their presentation.
Before the final vote, two things were brought to the attention of the Russians. Firstly, Santa Claus, through the host of the show, Ivan Urgant, conveyed a message in which he withdrew his candidacy from the election campaign for the title of the symbol of the Olympics. Secondly, a few hours before the start of the program, information went through all channels that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke for Leopard. At the same time, he asked the voters not to be guided by his opinion.
As a result, the winner of the vote was the leopard Barsik, drawn by Vadim Pak from Nakhodka. 28% of Russians voted for him. The Polar Bear is 10% behind the Leopard. The third place with 16% of the votes was taken by Zayka. The main surprise of the vote was that all the winners will become the mascots of the 2014 Games, the Olympics will have three symbols.
