List of Paralympic mascots

Each Paralympic Games have a mascot, usually an animal native to the area or occasionally human figures representing the cultural heritage. Nowadays, most of the merchandise aimed at young people focuses on the mascots, rather than the Paralympic flag or organization logos.

Noggi and Joggi, the mascots of the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem, The Netherlands are possibly the first Paralympic mascots. But since the Gomdoori in the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea, the Paralympic mascots has been associated with its Olympic counterparts.

List of mascots[edit]

Paralympics	City	Mascot	Character	Designer	Significance	Picture
1980 Summer Paralympics	Arnhem	Noggi and Joggi	a pair of squirrels	Necky Oprinsen	Possibly the first Paralympic mascots when those Games were still called the World Disabled Games.
1984 Summer Paralympics	New York/Stoke Mandeville	Dan D. Lion	a lion who wore running shoes and a jogging outfit.	Maryanne McGrath Higgins	The name was chosen following a vote by students at a school for students with severe physical impairments.[1]
1988 Summer Paralympics	Seoul	the "Gomdoori"	two Asian black bears	Lee Yun Soo	The Gomdoori (Korean for "teddy bears") were the Paralympic mascots for Seoul 1988. The bears are tied together to symbolize co-operation.[2]
1992 Winter Paralympics	Albertville	Alpy	a mountain on a mono-ski	Vincent Thiebaut	Represented the summit of the Grande Motte mountain in Tignes. Colors were white green and blue, to represent nature and the lake.
1992 Summer Paralympics	Barcelona	Petra	a stylized armless girl	Javier Mariscal	Depicted as an honest, diplomatic, energetic and brave girl. She has no arms, which symbolizes that she does not possess any weapons, and represents peace and harmony.
1994 Winter Paralympics	Lillehammer	Sondre	troll, with an amputation	Tor Lindrupsen and Janne Solem	The name was chosen in a competition and derives from the great skiing pioneer Sondre Nordheim.
1996 Summer Paralympics	Atlanta	Blaze	a colourful phoenix	Trevor Irvin	The phoenix is the symbol of the city of Atlanta.
1998 Winter Paralympics	Nagano	Parabbit	a white rabbit (1 red & 1 green ear)[3]		A competition was held among students to find a name for the 1998 Winter Paralympic mascot, and the designation “Parabbit” was chosen from among 3,408 different entries.
2000 Summer Paralympics	Sydney	Lizzie	frill-necked lizard	Matthew Hattan and Jozef Szekeres	Her frill was shaped like the combined islands of Australia and Tasmania
2002 Winter Paralympics	Salt Lake City	Otto	otter	Steve Small, Landor Associates and Publicis	The otter was chosen because of its quickness and liveliness.[4]
2004 Summer Paralympics	Athens	Proteas	colourfully-striped seahorse	Spyros Gogos	Named after the mythologic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, Proteus From the legend comes the name, after this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the general meaning of "versatile", "mutable", "capable of assuming many forms". "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability.
2006 Winter Paralympics	Turin	Aster	humanized snowflake	Pedro Albuquerque	Aster the snowflake represents the uniqueness of each participating athlete.[5]
2008 Summer Paralympics	Beijing	Fu Niu Lele	multi-coloured cow	Wu GuanYing	Represents a harmonious co-existence between mankind and nature, it represents athletes with a disability striving to make progress, and it represents the Beijing Paralympics Games' concept of "Transcendence, Equality and Integration."
2010 Winter Paralympics	Vancouver	Sumi	mythical creature	Meomi Design (a group of Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy)	With wings of a Thunderbird, legs of an American black bear, and a hat of a killer whale in an artistic style of Haida people. Part of Canadian legends.
		Mukmuk	Vancouver Island marmot		Not an official mascot, but the designated "sidekick".
2012 Summer Paralympics	London	Mandeville[6]	drop of steel, painted blue by the rainbow	Iris[7]	Named after the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.
2014 Winter Paralympics	Sochi	Ray of Light and Snowflake	a ray of light and a snowflake	Natalia Balashova and Anna Zhilinsky	Ray of Light came from a different planet that was perpetually hot, while Snowflake hailed from a planet that was perpetually cold. Together the two mascots invented the sports of ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.
2016 Summer Paralympics	Rio de Janeiro	Tom	plant made of all Brazilian plants	Luciana Eguti and Paulo Muppet[8]	Inspired by Brazilian flora. Named after the Brazilian musician Tom Jobim decided by popular vote.
2018 Winter Paralympics	Pyeongchang	Bandabi	Asiatic black bear	MASS C&G	The bear is symbolic of strong will and courage. Its name is also formed from two Korean words: bandal (반달) and bi (비), the former meaning "half-moon" to refer to the white crescent on an Asiatic black bear's chest and the latter connoting commemoration to celebrate the games.
2020 Summer Paralympics	Tokyo	Someity	A figure with pink chequered patterns from official emblem and cherry blossom flowers	Ryo Taniguchi[9]	The Paralympic mascot was chosen from several designs submitted by schoolchildren and illustrators throughout Japan.
2022 Winter Paralympics	Beijing	Shuey Rhon Rhon	A Chinese lantern child	Jiang Yufan	Designed with lanterns as the prototype. Lanterns represent harvest, celebration, warmth and light. The wishful shape at the top symbolizes auspicious happiness; the continuous pattern of the dove of peace and the Temple of Heaven symbolizes the peaceful friendship and highlights the characteristics of the place where the place is held; the decorative pattern incorporates the traditional Chinese paper-cut art; the snow on the face represents the meaning of "a fall of seasonable snow gives promise of a fruitful year". It also reflects the anthropomorphic design and highlights the mascot's cuteness.
2024 Summer Paralympics	Paris	Will be unveiled in late 2021 or 2022	TBA	TBA
2026 Winter Paralympics	Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo	Will be unveiled in late 2024	TBA	TBA
2028 Summer Paralympics	Los Angeles	Will be unveiled in late 2026	TBA	TBA

See also[edit]

• Paralympic symbols
• Olympic mascots
• Olympic symbols

References[edit]