News

Singapore launched on Friday a naming exercise for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) mascots.

The Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organizing Committee (SYOGOC) is inviting the public to join in naming the first YOG mascots by submitting their ideas online.

Goh Kee Nguan, chief executive officer of SYOGOC said, “As the ambassadors and the faces of the Games, the mascots will welcome the world to Singapore in August 2010.”

“We are looking for unique names which reflect youthfulness, are relevant to the mascot characters and easy to pronounce.”

The first Youth Olympic Games will have two mascots, a lion cub and a merlion cub.

The naming exercise will run for three weeks from August 14 to September 6. The mascots and their names will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Singapore will be hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games from Aug. 14 to 26, 2010.

The games will receive some 5,000 athletes and officials from the 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), along with estimated 800 media representatives, 20,000 local and international volunteers, and more than 500,000 spectators.

Young athletes aged between 14 and 18 years will compete in 26 sports and take part in Culture and Education Program.

The mascots of the previous Summer Olympic Games

Waldi–mascot of 1972 Olympic Summer Games in Munich, Germany	Amik–mascot of the 1976 Olympic Summer Games in Montreal, Canada	Misha–mascot of the 1980 Olympic Summer Games in Moscow
Sam the Eagle–mascot of the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles, USA	Hodori — mascot of the 1988 Olympic Summer Games in Seoul, Korea	Cobi — mascot of the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain
Izzy — mascot of the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, USA	Syd, Olly and Millie — mascots of the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia	Athena and Phevos — mascots of the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens, Greece
Fuwa — mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games