Roni (mascot)
Roni was the official mascot of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, USA . The mascot is an anthropomorphic raccoon , which is why it was sometimes referred to as Roni Racoon ( English : raccoon).
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The raccoon's typical face mask is supposed to be reminiscent of the athletes' hats and ski goggles. Roni was the first mascot to appear in the respective typical outfits and poses for various Olympic competitions, for example as a bobsledder or ice hockey player. The raccoon was chosen because it is a common species in the Adirondack Mountains , where Lake Placid is located. The name of the mascot was chosen by school children from Lake Placid. "Roni" means "raccoon" in the Iroquois language of the indigenous people of the area.
The Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games commissioned the Capital Sports agency to design a mascot. The designer Donald "Don" Moss decided on the shape of the raccoon and developed Roni. Initially, Moss also considered a beaver and a bear as possible mascots, but they were rejected again. The beaver was eliminated because it was already used as a state animal by the state of New York , the bear was not used because of the mascot of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the bear Misha . In addition to the mascot, Moss also designed a stamp for the games and the logo of the US ski team.
Others
Originally there was a real raccoon named Rocky as a living mascot for the Lake Placid Games . However, he died before the start of the Winter Games, after which Roni was designed and made the official mascot.
The artist Amy Schneider designed a poster for the Olympic Games, on which Roni can be seen standing on the stylized mountain of the logo of the Games and reaching into the Olympic rings . As a result, the International Olympic Committee intervened and ruled that touching the rings as depicted was prohibited. The poster was banned. Schneider designed a new motif on which Roni no longer took hold of the rings, but of a mountain. The already printed copies of the first draft are now traded as antiques.
The Roni figure was converted into various souvenir and merchandising items, and the proceeds from the sales were used to finance the Winter Games.
During the games, a person regularly appeared in a Roni costume, who both mingled with the audience and symbolically participated in various sports. This costume is now part of the exhibit at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum.
Web links
- Lake Placid 1980 Mascot: Roni on the official website of the International Olympic Committee
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gregor Baldrich: Mascot "Roni" / XIII. 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid. German Sports and Olympic Museum, March 9, 2011, accessed on September 1, 2016 .
- ^ A b c Alison Haas: Mascots: the spirit of the Olympic Games. Lake Placid News, May 23, 2013, accessed September 1, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Parton Keese: An Artist Who Is Doing What He Likes Best. The New York Times, July 15, 1979, accessed September 1, 2016 .
- ↑ 1980 Lake Placid: Roni. Austrian Olympic Museum, accessed on September 1, 2016 .