Bunny
According to the rules of the contest to select the mascots, the top three vote-getters become official Olympic mascots and their designers receive commemorative medals and gifts. 19-year-old Silviya Petrova of New Buyanovo village in the Chuvash republic state took home some swag after her design, a snow-white bunny, received 16 percent of the votes and come in third place.
“Cheerful and sporty” Zaika, a snow white doe hare, personifies the hard-working and diligent nature of Sochi’s young people. Like the other official mascots, Zaika has her own book, plush toys and other promotional items already on sale in Russia and online. What, you thought the Olympic Games were about sports?
Polar Bear
56-year-old Oleg Serdechniy’s Polar Bear just edged out Zaika with 18 percent of the votes. One of the few mascot contenders with a name, in this case “Bely Mishka”, the arctic bear’s vote totals may have been buoyed by sentimental Russians with long-lost Misha on their minds. One bear’s as good as another, amiright?
Polar Bears can certainly be found in Russia, though the chances of one appearing suddenly in Sochi, winter or not, are about as likely as a snowball surviving long in h e double hockey sticks. Stranger things have happened, mind you, and should one of the country’s northern denizens find its way FAR down south, panicky citizens and athletes know just who to call.
Snow Leopard
Credit 36-year-old Vadim Pak with submitting the top vote-getter: Nakhodka the Snow Leopard garnered a healthy 28 percent of the total votes cast. Voters were totally not influenced by the stated preference of Russian prime minister (now president) Vladimir Putin, who took to the airwaves just as voting was getting underway. “This is a collective image, which tells us that Russia is very diverse,” stated Putin in referring to the leopard. “It [Russia] is beautiful for its diversity, and the fact that one of the symbols of the Olympics has become an animal that we are reviving, and which was destroyed by humans in 50s of the last century, suggests that Russia is becoming different.” Er, thanks Vlad, but the contest only just started and we don’t know if… thanks, Vlad.
Without a doubt Sochi is Russia’s largest resort city and boasts a subtropical climate but… leopards? As President Putin mentioned, naturally occurring leopards were eradicated from the region by the mid-twentieth century but an ambitious reintroduction program is attempting to re-establish the big cats into parts of their former range. The timely birth of two Persian Leopard cubs in Sochi National Park was a triumph for Russian zoologists and a feather in the cap of Sochi’s Olympic Organizing Committee, who were happy to have some positive news to crow about… or roar about.


