List of Paralympic mascots

See also: List of Olympic mascots

Each Paralympic Games have a mascot, often 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 have been associated with their Olympic counterparts.

List of mascots

Games	City	Name	Type	Designer	Significance	Image
1980 Summer Paralympics	Arnhem	Noggi and Joggi	a pair of red 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	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 cooperation.[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, impatient and brave girl. As the first Paralympic mascot with disability, the design was based as friend of Mariscal, the Chilean-German artist Lorenza Böttner, like her, 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 map 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 myth also comes their name, as a 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 2008 Paralympic Summer Games' concept of "Transcendence, Equality and Integration."
2010 Winter Paralympics	Vancouver	Sumi	a hybrid and 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, he pays homage to Canadian legends.
		Mukmuk	Vancouver Island marmot		Not an official mascot, but the designated "sidekick".
2012 Summer Paralympics	London	Mandeville[6]	one eyed, 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.
2016 Summer Paralympics	Rio de Janeiro	Tom	An hybrid plant made of all Brazilian plants	Luciana Eguti and Paulo Muppet[8]	Inspired by the diversity of the Brazilian flora. Named after the local musician Tom Jobim decided by popular vote.
2018 Winter Paralympics	Pyeongchang	Bandabi	Asiatic black bear	MASS C&G	The chosen of the bear is relative to the mascots of the 1988 Summer Paralympics. And the Bear was also symbolic of strongness and courage. Its name is also formed from two Korean words: bandal (반달) and bi (비), 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 Robot creature 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. It is still popular after the games and still appears in events today.[10]
2022 Winter Paralympics	Beijing	Shuey Rhon Rhon	A Chinese lantern child	Jiang Yufan	Designed with Chinese New Year lanterns as the prototype.As the games were held during the Chinese New Year,the 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	The Paralympic Phryge[11]	Phrygian Cap	Gilles Deleris	An anthropomorphic Phrygian Cap based on the one Marianne wore at the time of the French Revolution. Also the first Paralympic mascot since the 1994 Winter Paralympics with an obvious disability with a prosthetic right leg. Revealed on 14 November 2022
2026 Winter Paralympics	Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo	Milo[12]	Ermine with an amputation	Students of the Istituto Comprensivo of Taverna in Calabria	Derived from Milan, one of the two host cities. Born without a back right paw, he uses his tail to overcome obstacles.

See also

• List of mascots
• Paralympic symbols
• Olympic mascots
• Olympic symbols

References

1. "New York 1984 Paralympic Games – Dan D. Lion". International Paralympic Committee.
2. "Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games - Gomdoori". International Paralympic Committee.
3. Olympic and Soccer Logos and Mascots^[usurped], aldaver.com
4. "Salt Lake City 2002 Paralympic Winter Games – Otto". International Paralympic Committee.
5. "Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games - Aster". International Paralympic Committee.
6. Farquhar, Gordon (19 May 2010). "BBC Sport - London 2012 unveils Games mascots Wenlock & Mandeville". BBC Online. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
7. "2012 London Olympics Mascots launched to the World". Archived from the original on June 28, 2010. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
8. "Meet the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots and help choose their names". Rio 2016. 23 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2016. The mascots were created by Birdo Studios, a São Paulo-based design and animation company
9. "Tokyo 2020 Unveils Mascots". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
10. https://x.com/hashtag/%E3%82%BD%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3?src=hashtag_click&f=live ^{[bare URL]}
11. "Avec ses produits dérivés, Paris 2024 veut faire sauter la banque". 29 October 2021.
12. https://olympics.com/en/news/milano-cortina-2026-mascots-unveiled-two-years-to-go-celebrations ^{[bare URL]}