If anyone thought that a figure-skating bunny, a snowboarding leopard and a chubby polar bear weren’t controversial, they thought wrong.
According to Yahoo.com, the organizing committee in Sochi (where the 2014 Winter Olympics are set to be held) announced the three mascot winners on Saturday during a nationally televised program in Russia.
It is unusual for the Olympics to have three mascots, and in this case there are three times the problems.
First, Ded Moroz, the Russian version of Santa Claus, was in the lead as the favorite mascot, before being withdrawn from the competition. Sources claimed that if Ded Moroz was chosen as the mascot, they were afraid the national figure would become property of the International Olympic Committee.
The snowboarding snow leopard has also drawn some controversy because Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cited this mascot as his favorite and has been accused of swaying votes. Putin said he favored the big cat over the other candidates because “the leopard is big, strong, fast and beautiful.”
After these comments were released, the leopard’s popularity increased.
Citizens were encouraged to vote by phone, either by calling or sending a text message. According to the committee, over one million votes were cast. Critics of the system claim that the votes for the leopard may have been rigged to guarantee Putin’s favorite was selected.
The “dorky” polar bear, as described by The Associated Press, could be involved in a copyright lawsuit. Viktor Chizhikov, the artist who designed the bear mascot for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, claims that the polar bear is plagiarism.
“This polar bear, everything is taken from mine, the eyes, nose, mouth, smile,” he told a Moscow radio station. “I don’t like being robbed.”
The bunny on skates has yet to cause any problems and is supposed to represent Russia’s figure skating program. We’ll see if it can keep its clean record.
The three mascots beat out a list of ten finalists.
The national committees seem to be striking out as far as mascot and logo selections go. Iran has threatened to boycott the games if the logo for the 2012 Olympics in London isn’t changed.
