Olympic mascots: Creative, cartoonish, at times contentious

By CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — The popular panda mascot of the Beijing Games got into a minor controversy last week when horrified fans by speaking with a grown man’s voice on Chinese TV. But the incident is just the latest comic mishap for Olympic mascots, which are supposed to embody the culture of their host cities. At the Sydney Games in 2000, a character named Fatso the Wombat outshined the real mascots and Izzy, a blue blob that represented the Atlanta Games, was widely ridiculed. Back in Beijing, Bing Dwen Dwen appears to have survived its slip-up up, with people still waiting hours on line to buy the plush toys.