2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots

Election

Along with the 2008 Russian presidential election, on 2 March 2008 there was an unofficial election held in Sochi to elect the mascot for the 2014 Winter Olympics. 270,000 voters along with their ballots received a coupon with four mascot candidates: Ded Moroz, a snowflake, a polar bear and a dolphin. According to a representative of Sochi city administration, the majority of Sochians voted for the dolphin.^[3] However, representatives of the Sochi Organizing Committee, which officially selects a logo and a mascot, commented that while respecting the opinion of Sochians, such a procedure is usually held later. They also pointed out, that the final version of the mascot should be a consensus of opinions of all citizens of the country and the result of work by professional designers and market analysts.^[4]

Official vote

A nationwide design contest was held in Russia, from September 1 to December 5, 2010.^[5] 24,000 designs were sent in for the contest.^[2]

A short list of designs were announced in December 2010, after a jury had reviewed thousands of designs.^[2] It was now down to eleven design ideas for the Olympic Games, and two design ideas for the Paralympic Games. The shortlisted designs were presented to the public on February 7, 2011. A live national TV broadcast, on Russia's Channel One,^[6] included a nationwide text message voting, where Russians voted for their favorite mascot.^[2]

• Ded Moroz (Russian: Дед Мороз) — the character, who can be thought of as Russian Santa Claus, was later removed from the list of official candidates, because if it had been chosen as mascot, it would have become the property of the IOC.^[7]
• The Brown bear (Russian: Бурый Медведь)
• The Leopard (Russian: Леопард) — Olympics Mascot^[8]
• The Polar bear (Russian: Белый Мишка) — Olympics Mascot^[8]
• The Hare (Russian: Зайка) — Olympics Mascot^[8]
• The Sun (Russian: Солнышко)
• The Ray of Light (Russian: Лучик) — Paralympics Mascot^[8]
• The Snowflake (Russian: Снежинка) — Paralympics Mascot^[8]
• The Bullfinch (Russian: Снегирь)
• The Matryoshka dolls (Russian: Матрёшки)
• The Dolphin (Russian: Дельфин)

Ray of Light and Snowflake were the two mascots selected for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, crafted by designers Natalia Balashova and Anna Zhilinsky.^[9]

Story

Leopard is a mountain rescuer, climber and an excellent snowboarder who lives in a huge tree on a high cliff in the Caucasus Mountains. He is the most popular out of the five.

Polar Bear lives in an igloo above the Arctic Circle, where not only the walls, but also everything else is made of snow and ice. He was raised by polar explorers who taught him to ski, skate, and curl; but most of all, he loved sledding.

Hare is an excellent student at the Forestry Academy, helps her mother at her family restaurant, "Lesnaya Zapruda," and participates in sports competitions.

Ray of Light (Russian: Luchik) has warm golden skin, green eyes, and rays of sunlight revealing from his hair. The story revolves around an alien that travels to Earth to escape the warmth on his planet and explore humanity; he finds out that he likes people and stays amongst them. He becomes friends with humans while Nordic skiing, but he feels lonely, until one day he sees a falling star coming to Earth, another alien called Snowflake. He drives a rocket made of fire.^[10]

Snowflake (Russian: Snejinka) has blue eyes, sky-blue skin and represents crystals of snow. She is an alien who wants to escape her cold planet to explore Earth. She meets her fellow alien Ray of Light and becomes friends with him. They create the sports of wheelchair curling and Para ice hockey. She drives a rocket made of ice.^[11]