Rio 2016 / Daniel RamalhoOlympic mascots have always been goofy and adorable, and what better way to celebrate the start of the games by remembering them through the years. Trust us, some of them are so weird looking you'll be glad you knew about them. That, or you'll have nightmares.
Mascots for the sporting event have been around since 1968, at the Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. Each little character (or sometimes characters) has a name that typically pays homage to the host country of each game. For your reading pleasure, and for you history buffs out there, we ranked each Olympic mascot, which can also be found on Olympic.org, from 1968 until now. Absolutely no disrespect to any country or game here, this list is strictly based off of the design (and hilariousness) of each mascot.
First things first. Where does Rio's mascot, Vinicius stand on our list? We put the yellow, green, blue and orange cat-esque figure at number 14. Honestly, while we love that this mascot stands for diversity, it's just not the best mascot design we've ever seen. The character is a tribute to the Brazillian musician Vinicius de Moraes and represents a combination of animals found in Brazil. Read on to see where the others compare!
1. Schuss from Grenoble 1968. OMGAH ITS SO KEWT WE CAN'T. Lil' Schuss is a skier and the very first mascot of the Olympics. That giant red head and googly eyes are melting our heart.
2. Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, Nini from Beijing 2008. Stop. They look like the happiest parade of anime-style Teletubbies to ever hit the scene at the Olympic Games. Major points for Beijing.
3. Sam from Los Angeles 1984. Aw! Sam is so classically '80s, so we had put him at number three. Also, it may be because we're partial to Los Angeles. That smile!
4. Olly, Syd and Millie from Sydney 2000. We're putting these bad boys at number four because they totally look like Pokémon, and we're not afraid to say we're into that.
5. Neve and Gliz from Turin 2006. Squee! Another pair of cuties. We love the simple colors and design, and the fact that they're so smiley and fuzzy. We like cute things, OKAY?
6. Quatchi and Miga from Vancouver 2010. We have a great deal of sympathy for the person that had to wear that seemingly 900 pound brown Quatchi costume while jumping through the air. We're putting these two at number 6 because of that.
7. Hidy and Howdy from Calgary 1988. Okay, we know these two might look like your worst nightmare to some, but we think they're an adorable Canadian twosome. They look like Care Bears, right?
8. Hodori from Seoul 1988. If these mascots get any cuter, we're going to faint. Korea's adorable mascot looks like a baby Tony the Tiger and we approve.
9. Cobi from Barcelona 1992. Way to go, Spain. This simple and sweet logo was drawn in a cubist style, which makes him extra artsy and chic.
10. Amik from Montreal 1976. We absolutely love these guys. They're abstract beavers that look like little blobs, and they couldn't get any more adorable.
11. The Snowlets from Nagano 1998. Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki represent the four elements. Sukki is fire, Air is Nokki, earth is Lekki and water is Tsukki. Too cute.
12. Vučko from Sarajevo 1984. He totally looks like Wile E. Coyote mixed with Sylvester, so we can't not love him.
13. Magique from Albertville 1992. We just want to hug it and squish it because it's so foofy. Also, we love that it's star shaped and red, white and blue. Did you know he was the first mascot that was not an animal since the 1976 games?
15. Powder, Coal and Copper from Salt Lake City 2002. Make it stop. These three look like an animatronic trio about to pop out from behind a curtain and Chuck E. Cheese and sing us happy birthday. Please go home.
16. Phevos and Athena from Athens 2004. Dunno about this one. We're sure this brother and sister duo are sweet and all, but are we going to get crushed if we go near those feet?
17. Wenlock from London 2012. Nope! Even the cartoon version of these guys aren't cute. There's just too much going on with these two. One eye? A taxi cab light on their head? Chromed-out color? Bye.
18. Izzy from Atlanta 1996. Poor Izzy. Didn't quite turn out as cute as we'd hoped. He's probably the most '90s character we've ever seen and looks like every corny childhood cartoon ever.
19. The Hare, The Polar Bear and The Leopard from Sochi 2014. What's cool about this trio is that they were pretty much chosen by the people. A drawing contest was held, and the final products were finalized by artists. What's not that cool is the fact that, well, they're kind of, dead in the eyes if you will.
20. Waldi from Munich 1972. It's cute but it's a little bland for our tastes. We do like that the dachshund represents "endurance, tenacity and agility," however. Not bad qualities to have!
21. Schneemann from Innsbruck 1976. Getting chased by this mini snow-person is the stuff nightmares are made of.
22. Roni From Lake Placid 1980. So cute yet so derpy. Team USA did a much better job on Sam, the eagle.
23. Misha from Moscow 1980. Something about a giant teddy bear representing the Olympics is just a little weird to us.
24. Haakon and Kristin from Lillehammer 1994. Sorry, Lillehammer. We're only putting this at the bottom because of that woman's facial expression in the photo. Nothing personal.
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