Wait. There have been alien and Sasquatch Olympic mascots?

The “fun or frightening?” part of the title about Olympic mascots reeled me in. However, one sentence in particular sent me down the research rabbit hole.

“Over the decades, the world has welcomed snowmen, sasquatches, cowboy-hat-wearing bears and aliens to the Olympic stage,” the CNN article reported.

“Wait. What? There have been alien and Sasquatch Olympic mascots? Where have I been?”

I had to explore that. However, I remembered the Sasquatch one as soon as I saw it.

The Supernatural Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots

Quatchi was one of two mascots for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, along with Miga, the sea bear. Both were inspired by local legends and lore.

Sasquatch obviously inspired Quatchi. Less obvious (unless you hail from British Columbia) was Miga’s mythical sea bear inspiration, which is said to be part killer whale and Kermode bear, or “spirit bear” due to its white fur.

Spirit bears look an awful lot like polar bears, except smaller. Turns out, they’re a rare subspecies of black bear. According to the North American Bear Center, most reside on the “Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands along the rainforest coast of British Columbia.”

Until I looked into it, I hadn’t realized the 2010 Olympic Games had two mascots. Nor did I appreciate both hailed from myths. Pretty cool.

No Alien Olympic Mascot

But what about an alien mascot? What host city had one of those? Time to do more exploring. Thankfully, Olympics.com listed all of the mascots, which made my digging easy.

The first thing I noticed scrolling through the images was that most mascots were animals. But a couple were sort of alien-looking, including Izzy (Atlanta 1996) and Wenlock (London 2012).

Izzy

Izzy’s name was shortened from its longer and more appropriate version, “Whatizit.” It was the first mascot that was neither animal nor human.

The Olympics describes the blob as “a product of information technology.” But most regard it as the worst Olympic mascot ever. Well, tied with Wenlock. Until the Olympic Phyrge came along, that is. Now many critics are saying it’s a contender for the worst Olympic mascot ever.

Wenlock

With its giant eye (which is meant to be “the lens of a camera, filming everything he sees”), Wenlock looks the most like an alien, but it’s not. It can best be described as a conglomeration of elements.

Its metallic look symbolizes “the last drops of steel used to build the Olympic Stadium in London.” London’s black cabs (the light on its head), and the roof of the stadium (the shape of its forehead) also contribute to its “alien-like” features.

Sci-Fi Olympics

Maybe someday there will be an alien-inspired Olympic mascot. Or even Olympic Games on another planet. Maybe they’d even have new out-of-this-world events for citizens of the galaxy to compete in. That’d be something, wouldn’t it?

Olympic Mascots Through the Years

In case you’re wondering, here’s a list of all the mascots through the years so far:

• Shuss the Little Man on Skis – Grenoble 1968
• Waldi the Dachshund – Munich 1972
• Schneemandl the Snowman – Innsbruck 1976
• Amik the Beaver – Montreal 1976
• Roni the Raccoon – Lake Placid 1980
• Misha the Bear – Moscow 1980
• Vucko the Wolf – Sarejevo 1984
• Sam the Eagle – Los Angeles 1984
• Hidy and Howdy the Polar Bears – Calgary 1988
• Hodori the Tiger – Seoul 1988
• Magique the Imp – Albertville 1992
• Cobi the Pyrenean Mountain Dog – Barcelona 1992
• Haakon and Kristin the Children – Lillehammer 1994
• Izzy (also “Whatizit”) the ??? – Atlanta 1996
• Sukki, Nokkie, Lekki, and Tsukki the Owlets – Nagano
• Syd the Duck-Billed Platypus, Ollie the Kookaburra, and Millie the Spiny Anteater – Sydney 2000
• Powder the Snowshoe Hare, Copper the Coyote, and Coal the Black Bear – Salt Lake City 2002
• Phevos and Athena the Brother and Sister – Athens 2004
• Neve the Snowball and Gliz the Ice Cube – Turin 2006
• Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan the Child of Fire, Yingying the Tibetan antelope, and Nini the Swallow – Beijing 2008
• Quatchi the Sasquatch and Miga the Seabear – Vancouver 2010
• Wenlock the ??? – London 2012
• The Hare, the Polar Bear, and the Leopard – Sochi 2014
• Vinicius – Rio 2016
• Soohorang the White Tiger – PyeongChang 2018
• Miraitowa the ??? – Tokyo 2020
• Bing Dwen Dwen the Panda – Beijing 2022
• Olympic Phyrge – Paris 2024

Check-In

What’s your favorite Olympic mascot(s)?