The first Olympic mascot appeared in 1968 in Grenoble. It was an image of a skier, who was given the name Schuss. But officially he was not yet considered a talisman. He entered the set of all Olympic symbols 4 years later at the next Olympics.
The Olympic mascot represents the quintessence of what the competition organizers would like to convey to fans of the Olympic movement. Each mascot of the Olympics is a certain symbol of a particular city. And one of its purposes is to tell about the cultural and historical significance of the region where the Games will be held. Ideas for the future Olympics should also be visible in the proposed character.
As a rule, images of animals characteristic of the region or the country as a whole are used as the Olympic talisman. For example, the famous bear was the symbol of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. After all, it is with this animal that Russia is often correlated abroad. In addition, the bear is a strong animal and even agile in certain situations. And this is exactly what the athletes who are fighting for world championship should be.
Fictional characters can also act as symbols of the Olympics. For example, the Atlanta Summer Olympics featured a computer-generated fictional character Izzy. It turned out to be so fantastic that the organizers themselves found it difficult to determine who it was. The character's name reflects this, as it turned out as a result of the abbreviation of the English phrase What is it? Izzy looked like a man with eyes filled with stars, a wide mouth, high eyebrows, and funny boots and gloves. In addition, this character was equipped with a tail, which was put on the Olympic rings. Despite the fact that it turned out to be extremely unusual and memorable, it was called the most disastrous mascot in the entire history of the Olympic movement.
A number of talismans were represented not by one character, but by several at once. So, for example, a pair of identical characters was used at the XV Olympic Games in 1988 in Calgary - they were two polar bears Heidi and Howdy. A pair of folklore dolls, Hakon and Christine, were symbols of the 1994 Lillehamer Games. Another pair represented the Athens Olympics in 2004 - these were antique dolls of Thebos. The XVIII Olympic Games in Nagano were represented by four colorful owls. The rest of the Games were distinguished by a variety of characters with a huge number of characters. For example, the animals kookaburra, platypus and echidna became the mascots of the Games in Sydney. Salk Lake City was represented by a hare, a coyote and a bear. In Turin, the guests of the Olympics were greeted by the Niv snowball and the Gliese ice cube. The Vancouver Winter Olympics were held under the banner of a sea bear, Bigfoot and a mythological character. Against this background, Beijing in 2008 stood out, which presented 5 creatures at once as a mascot for sports competitions: a fish, a panda, a Tibetan antelope, a swallow and an Olympic flame. They were all portrayed in typical anime style.
The mascots of the Olympics are practically living objects. Each of them even has their own name. For example, the famous Olympic bear was called Mikhail Potapych Toptygin.
The mascots of the Olympics were dogs, beavers, eagles, seals, tigers, raccoons, wolves and other representatives of the animal world. Each idea is sent to the IOC selection committee, which examines the compliance of the declared layout with the requirements of a particular competition. After that, at a special meeting of the commission, one of them is approved and patented, thereby becoming not only the mascot of the Olympic Games, but also a fairly successful trademark. According to research, people have a lot more confidence in a product when the Olympic mascot is on the label.
