|
The chequered history of Olympic mascots, by Joe Muraca and Dan Witthaus.
The 'Fuwa' are the Official Mascots of the Beijing Olympic Games: fish, panda, Olypmic flame, Tibetan antelope and swallow.
The Olympics: unrivalled sporting moments intermingled with international politics. Yawn.
Come 08.08.08, the real story of the Beijing Games will be the success or failure of the official Olympic mascots. Forget the comings and goings of international dignitaries and the smog; it’s all about a different form of propaganda.
You may laugh, but what did Syd, Ollie and Millie really say about us or the 2000 Olympic Games? Apparently they represented earth, air and water. Ollie, for example, was touted as the epitome of generosity: ‘universal generosity’, to be precise. We’re not quite sure how you get that from a fish-gulping kookaburra…
The history of the Olympic mascot is checkered. There’s conjecture about when they really came to the fore. The ill-advised will say Moscow in 1980, but mascots have been around since at least the 1968 Grenoble Winter Games. ‘Schuss’ the skier made a huge impact on us all, didn’t he?
On an official note, a mascot is supposed to be a ‘significant vehicle for communicating the Olympic spirit to the general public’. Hmmm. It may be that sometimes things get lost in translation.
Take Munich (1972) for instance and the humble dachshund, Waldi. A cute accessory for any respectable Southside boy, you might think. Not quite. Apparently he was the embodiment of resistance, tenacity and agility. Who knew?
Clearly, some wally woofter had a hand in things, given that Waldi’s coat of many pastel colours was said to express the ‘gaiety’ of the Olympic festival.
We love the Germans for it, but they’re not the only ones to have missed the mark.
At least we knew Waldi was a dog. Come Atlanta in ’96, the Yanks produced ‘Whatizit’ (otherwise known as Izzy). Some gay man in design drank too much coke (yes, drank) before giving us a computer-generated creature resembling a blue sperm wearing lavender shoes and with lightning bolts on its head. So woeful was Izzy that s/he didn’t even make it to the Opening Ceremony. But don’t fret. Its legacy is the naming rights to a pissweak rollercoaster ride at an African-inspired theme park in Tampa, Florida.
Clearly a gay man wasn’t involved in Montreal’s effort in ‘76. Enter Amik, a mediocre beaver clearly in need of a makeover. A champion of the friendliness, patience and hard work that helped build Canada, Amik didn’t inspire the home country. Canada was the first to fail to win any gold at their own games. Oops.
No theme park rides immortalize Amik’s memory, but an uncanny likeness has recently appeared in a spate of women’s sanitary napkin endorsements.
However not all countries have got it wrong. Who would have thought the Soviets could produce the cuddly Russian bear, Misha, who struck a cord with all of us in 1980? Not even the most hardened communist could hold back a tear when this burly creature floated out of Moscow’s Olympic Stadium at the end of one of the most controversial games of the modern era. And the figures speak for themselves: Misha inspired 80 gold; Amik, zero.
And so to Beijing. Take your pick from five characters touted as an intimate circle of playful friends. Directly flouting China’s one child policy, this motley crew of mascots are the Powder Puff Girls meet Hello Kitty and the Spice Girls. Curiously carrying a message of friendship and peace, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope may just be staying silent on that one. Be sure to collect them all.
 |
Leave it to (Amik the) beaver
Subscribe to this comment's feed