Nagano 1998The Mascot

Names

Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki

Owls Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki are also known as the Snowlets. “Snow” refers to the winter season, during which the Games take place, and “lets” refers to “let’s”, an invitation to join in the Games celebrations. In addition, the first two letters of the four names form the word “snowlets”. “Owlets” means young owls.

Description

Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki are four snowy owls. They represent, respectively, fire (Sukki), air (Nokki), earth (Lekki) and water (Tsukki). The choice of four mascots is a nod to the four years that make up an Olympiad.

Creator

Landor Associates

Did You Know?

Originally, the Nagano Games mascot was going to be a weasel called “Snowple”.

Owls are venerated around the world as having the “wisdom of the woods”; in Greek mythology, the owl is associated with Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

The four Snowlets' names were chosen from among 47,484 suggestions.

The agency responsible for creating the mascots was the same one that designed the torch for the Atlanta Games in 1996, and also took part in designing the mascots for Salt Lake City 2002.