Flora and Fauna Inspire Mascots for Rio Olympic Games

11/24/2014 - 08h30

One represents animal diversity. The other, an amalgamation of the country's flora.

These are, respectively, the Olympic and Paralympic mascots of the 2016 Rio Games.

The two representatives were announced Sunday night (23). It will be up to the public to name them.

There are three pairs of names to choose from: Oba and Eba; Tiba Tuque and Esquindim; and Vinícius and Tom, in honor of musicians Vinícius de Moraes and Tom Jobim.

Voting opened Saturday night on the official Olympics site (rio2016.com/mascote).

Votes will be tabulated over three weeks and the results will be announced on Dec. 14.

The mascot selection process started in September 2012. After fulfilling several steps, the three final ideas were given to children aged six to 12 from Rio and São Paulo for feedback.

In August 2013, the two mascots were chosen by a committee made up of representatives from the organizing committee of the Games, the international Olympic and Paralympic committees and the Olympic Committee of Brazil.

A few renowned market specialists also participated in the selection process.

The organizing committee of the Rio Games will promote, starting on Monday (24) at 10am, the first public appearance of the mascots at an event in the Santa Teresa neighborhood.

PROMOTION

Last week, several icons from past Olympic Games came to Rio to promote the unveiling of the 2016 mascots.

Among them were the Misha bear (from Moscow-1980), Athena (from Athens-2004), the cow Fu Niu Lele (from the Beijing Paralympics-2008) and Wenlock and Mandeville (from London-2012).

Translated by JILL LANGLOIS

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	Alex Ferro/Rio 2016
	One represents animal diversity and the other, Brazil's flora: these are the Olympic and Paralympic mascots of the Rio Games