• The two mascots of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the Olympic Phryge and the Paralympic Phryge, inspired by the Phrygian cap.

  • This embodies "perfectly well the French Republic", assures Tony Estanguet, the president of the organizing committee (Cojo).

  • A universe around these mascots has even been created by the Cojo in order to establish their popularity.

To make the 2024 Olympics a success, the organizing committee (Cojo) likes to bet on originality.

This was the case with the opening ceremony on the Seine, the marathon course open to all, and this is still the case with the choice of the Games mascot.

"We wanted to stand out by choosing an ideal more than an animal", explained this Monday morning at a press conference Tony Estanguet, president of the Cojo.

Indeed, until now the previous Olympic mascots were mostly animals with a good proportion of bears, even if the first was a dachshund, Waldi, for the Munich Olympics in 1972.

And this desire to stand out led to the choice of the Phrygian cap, which at first glance may seem quite implausible.

But the Cojo firmly believes in it.

“He perfectly embodies the French Republic, assures Tony Estanguet.

It is a well-known object, which makes sense in France, present in town halls, in art, on stamps.

The mascots are therefore red with sneakers – and a racing blade for one of them – and, a detail which will not have escaped our most informed readers, their eyes are tricolor cockades.



The organizers must have been marked as children by the French Revolution since it is the second nod to this period after the somewhat far-fetched one of the marathon course.

Finally, and as France will never be France if it does not aspire to universalism, these mascots, announces the president of the Cojo, "will carry this symbol of freedom, of French Games"!

Don't throw any more!

“In pronunciation, it was not the most obvious”

The claim to the universalism of these franchouillarde mascots could nevertheless be weighed down by the name of these two caps without real first names: the Olympic Phryge and the Paralympic Phryge.

For a non-French speaker, it's not easy to decipher or pronounce.

Tony Estanguet agrees: “In pronunciation, it was not the most obvious thing.

“But, “we assume the party that it is not so simple, supports Julie Matikhine, the director of the mark.

French is not an easy language, but to establish this story, adding a name would have led to confusion.

And she adds that the testing of foreigners has had positive feedback.


And to anchor these mascots, the Cojo has even imagined a mini-universe.

"These are the main characters of the people of the phryges, a bit like the Smurfs or the Minions", deciphers the director of the brand.

A history of the phryges has thus been put in place which sees them being present during the great historical moments of the history of France, whether at Lascaux or on the barricades of the days of July 1830. The two mascots have also been equipped with personalities, specifies Julie Matikhine:


“The Olympic phryge is a fine tactician, Cartesian, thoughtful, while the Paralympic phryge is a party animal, extroverted, turned towards others.

And it's the combination of their two personalities that creates the balance.

It would have been a shame if the phryges were frigid.

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  • Paris

  • Ile-de-France

  • Olympic Games

  • Paris 2024 Olympics

  • Mascot

  • Tony estanguet