Cute Olympic Mascots, Eh?

As you may or may not know, I am a total nut for the Olympics. I love 'em! In particular I love the winter games, but believe me, I get excited for the summer games too. So you can imagine my excitement when about a month ago the organizing committee for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver debuted the 2010 Olympic mascots!


Meet the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots

I was enchanted from the first moment I laid eyes on Sumi, Quatchi and Miga. In fact, I've been itching to blog about this from day one, but with the holidays and everything, I just never seemed to find the time until now.


Sumi is part bear and part thunderbird.

Sumi is described as an "animal spirit" who "wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear." I envy Sumi because he is the only mascot who has the ability to fly. His home is in British Columbia, which is the only Canadian province I've been to more than once. He and I also share a love for hot chocolate.


Quatchi is the cutest sasquatch around.

I have to say, however, that my favorite would have to be Quatchi, a young sasquatch from the mysterious forests of Canada. Of all the mascots, Quatchi looks the most like me (rather, I should say that I look the most like him ... except with a lot less hair). Although we differ on favorite winter sports (his, hockey / mine, figure skating), we are both gastronomincally versatile. Meaning that like me, he loves to try all kinds of food!


Miga is a sea bear: Half bear, half killer whale.

The only female mascot of the bunch is cute little Miga. She is what you call a "sea bear," which means she is half Kermode bear (a rare white bear from British Columbia) and half killer whale. According to the website, Miga lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino, British Columbia. I think Miga is probably the most adorable of the whole bunch (and she and I both love wild salmon).

If the characters themselves aren't cute enough as is, then the plush toys that they're selling on the website are even cuter. Unfortunately, at this stage they're only shipping the toys to Canada. Apparently a U.S. store is on its way soon, but who knows when.

Olympic toys are notoriously hard to get your hands on when the games are in another country. Tom and Christine can attest to this, looking back at our ultimately unsuccessful effort to get our hands on the plush versions of the snowlet owls from the 1998 winter games in Nagano, Japan.


Cutest olympic mascots ever.

If you want to know more about the mascots, visit the official olympic mascot website. To check out the toys for sale, visit the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Store.