Say hello to the mascots of Rio 2016
The mascots for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games have said Oi! (hello!) to the world for the first time. Inspired by the fauna and flora of Brazil, the mascots feature various influences from pop culture, along with elements of animation and computer game characters.
The mascots blend fiction and reality and were both born on 2 October 2009, when Rio de Janeiro was elected to host the Games and the people’s great joy was felt by nature. It was from this energy that the mascots were created.
The Olympic mascot is a mixture of the different animals of Brazil. It lives its life by playing, jumping, running and smiling, and it can stretch and stretch and stretch itself, as much as it wants. As a mixture of Brazilian animals, it can also do the same things they can, like run faster, jump higher, and be stronger. It’s also able to imitate the voice of any animal, so it’s super communicative.
The Olympic mascot plays all the Olympic sports and its favourite pastime is making new friends. Its best friend is the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games mascot. It lives in a tree-house, in the Tijuca Forest, from where it can see the whole city and plan animal adventures. The mascot’s mission is to spread joy throughout the world and celebrate the friendship that flourishes between people from all over the world at this super sports event.
The Paralympic mascot is a unique mixture of Brazilian flora. It is able to pull crazy objects out of his head of leaves in order to get out of any jam. It knows all the secrets of nature and understands that with creativity, intelligence and determination, we can achieve whatever we want. It plays all the Paralympic sports and loves samba and all kinds of Brazilian music. Its mission is to inspire everybody to use creativity and determination to always reach further and have fun.
After the mascots’ unveiling, a poll to decide their names was opened. Everyone can vote for their choice from a shortlist of three pairs of names, one for the Olympic mascot, the other for the Paralympic mascot, respectively. The name choices are Oba and Eba; Tiba Tuque and Esquindim; and Vinicius and Tom. People can vote at www.rio2016.com/mascots as well as on the Rio 2016 Twitter feed (@Rio2016). Both mascots will have their own website and profiles on social media.