For their first games in the modern era since 1896, the Greeks sought to emphasize their connection to the ancient games by basing their mascots on a figurine from thousands of years ago, and naming them after the Greek gods Phevos and Athena. Though the Athens Organizing Committee claimed that the mascots represented “participation, brotherhood, equality, cooperation, fair play [and] the everlasting Greek value of human scale,” for many their odd, amorphous shape evoked the wrong part of the human anatomy, drawing criticism for resembling “animated condoms” or, in the words NBC Olympic host Bob Costas, “a genetic experiment gone horribly, ghastly wrong.”

Next Neve and Gliz, Turin 2006

• Mascots

  • Smoky, Los Angeles 1932
  • Waldi, Munich 1972
  • Sam, Los Angeles 1984
  • Vucko, Sarajevo 1984
  • Cobi, Barcelona 1992
  • Izzy, Atlanta 1996
  • Phevos and Athena, Athens 2004
  • Neve and Gliz, Turin 2006
  • Fuwa, Beijing 2008
  • Miga and Quatchi, Vancouver 2010
  • Wenlock and Mandeville, London 2012
  • Pink ‘thing’, Tokyo 2016

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