The best and worst Olympic mascots

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The Worst …

5. Schuss (1968 Winter Olympics, Grenoble)

Looking like he was whittled out of a bar of soap by a prison inmate, this first-ever Olympic mascot was a bellwether for bad mascots to come. He was supposed to be a skier but looked instead like a giant tadpole balanced on an ice skate. There was nothing cute, cuddly or vaguely appealing about the Schuss, whose giant red head looked infected. He looked more like a bookend than a mascot.

4. Magique (1992 Winter Olympics, Albertville)

Looking a bit like Maggie Simpson when she’s bundled up for cold weather, the Magique appeared to be human, but had no nose, ears, hands or feet. The conehead didn’t help this snow imp look any more intelligent, and the figure’s obesity didn’t make him much of a symbol for athletic competition. If you were lucky enough to get a plastic one, it made a nice throwing star. Otherwise, the Magique was pretty much useless.

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3. Neve and Gliz (2006 Winter Olympics, Torino)

The lack of opposable thumbs was the least of the problems for these mascots, which featured the disturbing combination of snow ball and ice cube heads on Gumby-like bodies. Neve, the female mascot, resembled one of the “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” aliens — and she was the looker of the pair. Gliz looked like a really pale bald guy who was trying to swallow a 46-inch television set. Let’s hope they never reproduce.

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2. Athena and Phevos (2004 Summer Games, Athens)
Starting in the year 2004, artists seemed to abandon altogether the concept of creating something pleasing to children, and went instead for nightmare-inducing themes instead. Athena and Phevos were mumu-wearing no-necked flipper-armed deformities whose feet were so gout-ridden that they were forced to go barefoot. They were supposed to look like ancient dolls, but many Greeks found the figures stereotyping and degrading. A huge high-profile mascot failure.

1. Whatizit (1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta)

With his lightning bolt eyebrows, big red shoes, Donny Osmond teeth and ringed multi-colored tail, Izzy appeared to have been designed by a team of kids with attention deficit disorder. His blobby body seemed to promote a sedentary lifestyle, not a the elite athletic competition that the Olympic Games represented. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games gave Izzy makeovers, but the damage was done. Bob Costas called the mascot “a genetic experiment gone horribly, ghastly wrong.”