The Paris 2024 Olympic mascot is a hat. Yes, you read that right. However, it is not just a regular cap. The mascot for the Paris Olympics 2024 is called Phryges. A lot of thought went behind choosing Phryges as the mascot as it has a rich history.
The significance of Phryges
The Phryges is an item of clothing that is symbol of freedom in French’s history. It dates back to centuries. Before becoming a symbol of liberty in the French revolution, it featured on some flags in Latin America as well. France's national colours of red, blue and white are used on the mascot. In addition ribbon cockades are used on one eye of the mascot.
The Phrygians caps were worn during the construction of Paris' Nortre-Dame cathedral in 1163, during the revolution of 1789, during work to build the Eiffel Tower, and during the Paris 1924 Olympic Games.
"Rather than an animal, our mascots represent an ideal," Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said when the mascot was first revealed in 2022.
"Since it is familiar to us and appears on our stamps and the pediments of our town halls, it also represents French identity and spirit."
While marketing, numerous Phryges were used. However, there are two official main characters. One represents the 2024 Paris Olympics with the logo of Games on it. The other is used for Paris Paralymics and has a prosthetic leg.
Selection process for mascot
The mascot of Paris Olympics has been designed by Paris 2024 design team. It is not that the design team of Olympics itself designs the mascot. Host countries find different ways to design the mascot. Any Olympic mascot is decided through a selection process. The mascot of the last edition of Olympics i.e. Tokyo Olympics, Miraitowa, was selected through a competition and the design of Ryo Taniguchi was selected. The organising committee of Tokyo Olympics received more than 2000 designs, which were part of the competition held in Japan, in which Japanese people of 18 years or above participated.
The selection process went on in several stages and three finalists were selected and then those three final designs were given to the children of primary schools in Japan, who voted and Miraitowa won by 109,041 votes. However, Brazil followed a different selection process to select the mascot. The organisers had asked for tenders from Brazilian companies and professionals in the field of design, animation and illustration. The jury selected the design Vinicius for 2016 Rio Olympics.
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