FANS are gearing up for the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer as the world’s greatest athletes battle it out for 329 gold medals in 32 sports.
And you will be seeing plenty of the Games’ official mascots as they take centre stage in the French capital.
The official mascots of the Paris 2024 Olympics are called the Phryges.
The two characters, known as the Olympic and Paralympic Phryges, are kitted out in a red, white and blue colourway.
They also boast the golden Paris 2024 logo across their chests and are described as having “mischievous and expressive eyes.”
The Paralympic Phryges proudly sports a running blade, making it the first mascot in the Games’ history to have a visible disability.
The Phryges are based on a traditional French hat called Phrygian caps, which have been worn in France for hundreds of years and are a symbol of freedom.
The Phrygian cap covers the head of busts of French national icon Marianne at town halls across the country and also appears on postal stamps.
At the ceremony to unveil the mascots in 2022, the Paris 2024 president, Tony Estanguet, explained the reasoning behind the Phryges, he said: “We chose an ideal rather than an animal.
“We chose the Phrygian cap because it’s a very strong symbol for the French Republic. For French people, it’s a very well-known object that is a symbol of freedom.
“The fact that the Paralympics mascot has a visible disability also sends a strong message: to promote inclusion.”
According to the official Paris Olympics website, the motto of the Olympic and Paralympic Phryge is “Alone we go faster, but together we go further,” representing the ways in which the mascots and the people of the world can make each other better by working side-by-side.
Mascots have been a key element of the Olympics since the Winter Games in Grenoble, France, in 1968.
It was named Schuss and was a cartoon character on skis.
Waldi was the first official mascot, a dachshund featured at the 1972 Munich Games.
Since then, the tradition has seen a wide range of mascots, including a wombat, bald eagle, cuddly bear, white tiger, and London’s very own “drop of steel” Wenlock.
