As Games announce mascot, a look at the previous cute, irritating and weird
Organizers for the 2015 Pan American Games announce Pachi the Porcupine as the mascot Wednesday afternoon. The public voted earlier this year, choosing from six options whittled down from 4,100: a bear, moose, owl, porcupine, raccoon, and twins. The first Pan Am Games mascot was introduced in 1979 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mascots for both the Pan Am Games and the Olympic Games have included animals, mythical creatures, and mostly unidentifiable figures. Olympic Games mascots are usually inspired by a host country’s culture, and are revealed when the next host country is announced.
Pachi, the mascot of the 2015 Toronto Pan Am games, was chosen from six options, including a bear, moose, owl, raccoon, and twins. Pachi has 41 quills- one for each country in the Games- whose colours represent youth (green), passion (fuchsia), collaboration (blue), determination (orange) and creativity (purple). He wears the Pan Am Games hat and wristbands from the Pan Am Games and the Parapan Am Games. He is "diverse and unique," like the people of Toronto.
Canadian figure skaters, from left, Craig Buntin of Kelowna, B.C., Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que and Jeff Buttle of Sudbury, Ont. pose with Olympic mascots Neve (left) and Gliz at the team welcoming ceremony in Turin, Italy Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006. Neve (“snow” in Italian) is a female snowball representing the harmony and elegance of movements in sport, and Gliz (short for ghiaccio, “ice” in Italian) is a male ice cube who represents the power and strength of athletes. The two together personify the essence of winter sports.MIKE RIDEWOOD/The Canadian Press
The mascot for the Olympic Games 1972 in Munich is displayed in a special Olympic exhibition in the German Sports and Olympic Museum in Cologne, Germany, on Friday, April 25, 2008. Waldi the daschund was the first major official Olympic Games mascot, and began a long tradition of animal-inspired mascots.Hermann J. Knippertz/The Associated Press
The Olympic mascots Athena, right, and Phevos fence during the interval between two semifinal rounds at the 2004 Olympic Games at the Helliniko fencing hall in Athens Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004. The two were inspired by an ancient Greek doll and Greek gods. Phevos was inspired by Apollo, the Olympian god of light and music, and Athena after the goddess of wisdom, who is the patron of Athens.MICHAEL SOHN/The Associated Press
Olympic mascots pose on stage during a launching ceremony and the start of the 1,000-day countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games, in Beijing, November 11, 2005. The five mascots are called the Fuwa, or children bringing good luck. This was an unprecedented number of mascots- no previous Olympic games had seen this many. The Fuwa represent four animals- BeiBei is the fish, JingJing is the panda, YingYing is the Tibetan antelope, NiNi is the swallow- and the Olympic flame (HuanHuan). When you put the five names together- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni- the combination says “Welcome to Beijing” in Mandarin.CLARO CORTES IV/Reuters
Vancouver 2010 Winter Games mascots Quatchi and Miga wearing their Red Mittens. Inspired by local geography and legend, Quatchi is a big, gentle and shy sasquatch, and Miga is a small, mischievous and outgoing “sea bear.”Hand-Out
Japanese priest Taka-Kazu Fukushima poses with a Snowlet, a Nagano olympic mascot, at the Zenko Temple in Nagano February 3. The Snowlets were the mascots of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The name not only describes the name for young owls, but is formed by “snow” and “lets”- referring to the winter season and to “let’s,” inviting everyone to join the festival. The first two letters of the owls names- Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki- also form the word “snowlets” in Japanese.© Reuters Photographer / Reuters
Misha the bear, the official mascot for the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, sets the scene at the Lenin Central Stadium in Moscow, the venue for the track and field competitions. Children’s books illustrator Victor Chizikov developed Misha, which was featured on a stamp, hundreds of different pins, as a plush toy, in plastic, porcelain, rubber, wood, glass, and metal.PA
Syd the platypus (L), Millie the echidna (C) and Olly the kookaburra, The Sydney 2000 Olympic Mascots, pose with a Japanese journalist at the Main Press Centre at Olympic Park, September 12, 2000. Designer Matthew Hatton was careful to avoid references to kangaroos or koalas when he chose the animals, which represent three of the key elements in Australia. Millie the Echidna represents earth, Olly the Kookaburra represents air, and Syd the Platypus represnts water.© Claro Cortes / Reuters
In this July 19, 1995, file photo, Izzy, the mascot of the Olympic Games of Atlanta 1996, dances in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Izzy was an amorphous abstract fantasy figure whose name came from “Whatizit?” because no one seemed to know what it was. Izzy was the first computer-generated mascot, who broke from the tradition of cultural figures or animals.Donald Stampfli/The Associated Press
Brazilian sand sculptor Francisco Rogean works on a sand figure of Caue, the mascot of the Pan American Games, at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro July 5, 2007. The name was chosen by popular vote, beating out other options like Luca and Kuara. The mascot was also the first to represent both the Pan-Am and the Parapan American Games, focusing on the ideals of equality, because just like the sun, sports are for all.© Bruno Domingos / Reuters/Reuters
The 2012 Olympic mascot Wenlock (L) and Paralympic mascot Mandeville pose for photographers in the playground at St. Paul's primary school in London in a May 19, 2010 file photo. Children’s book author Michael Morpurgo wrote a story to illustrate how the two were created from the last drops of steel left over from Olympic Stadium construction.Wenlock is named after Much Wenlock, which hosted a tournament inspiring the Olympic Games. Mandeville is named after Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games.SUZANNE PLUNKETT/Reuters