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2024 Olympics: What’s a Phryge? The Paris 2024 mascots, explained

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken on November 10, 2022, shows the mascots for the Paris 2024 Olympic (R) and Paralympic (L) Games 'Les Phryges' in Saint-Denis, north of Paris. - The name of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic mascots
(Photo by Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

You’re going to see a lot of Les Phryges over the next few weeks. They’re cheerful wide-eyed triangles, puffy and red, and they’re the mascots of the 2024 Paris Games. Sure, they look like friendly Minion-esque scamps, but they carry deep connections to French history and culture. Oh, and they’re for sale in plush form, of course.

The first official Olympic mascot dates back to the 1968 Grenoble Games in France when "Shuss," a big-headed fellow on skis, debuted. Later Games took the mascot creation more seriously, and their creations inspired everything from T-shirts to toys to cartoons.

The Phryges (pronounced “FREE-jess,” or, if you’re leaning American, “fridges”) are the latest in the long line of mascots designed to embody both free-spirited joy and national pride. Past efforts have varied wildly in achieving this mission, such as:

The cutesy sasquatch and sea bear from Vancouver 2010:

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

The intensely patriotic eagle from Los Angeles 1984:

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

The highly collectible panda from China 2022:

Bi Tingzhu, venue operation team member of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, takes a photo with Bing Dwen Dwen outside the National Aquatics Centre the
(Ren Chao/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The horrifying cyclopean aliens from London 2012:

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

And the flat-out bewildering “Izzy” from Atlanta 1996:

ATLANTA, GA - JULY 13:  Izzy, the Mascot of the Centennial Olympics, walks by spectators during the opening ceremony of the Centennial Olympic park 13 July in Atlanta. The 26th Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to open 19 July in Atlanta. AFP PHOTO  (Photo credit should read MICHEL GANGNE/AFP via Getty Images)
(Michel GangneI/AFP via Getty Images)

Les Phryges derive their name from the phrygian hats favored by rebels during the French Revolution, and given how often France explodes into revolt, the phrygian hats are never out of fashion.

“Rather than an animal, our mascots represent an ideal,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said. “Since it is familiar to us and appears on our stamps and the pediments of our town halls, it also represents French identity and spirit.”

One of France’s most famous paintings, Eugene Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading The People” (1830), features the very symbol of Liberty itself wearing a phrygian hat as she inspires the masses to overthrow the repressive Charles X. Paris 2024 even referenced the painting when introducing the mascots, promising a “revolution in sport”:

Marianne, France’s national personification of liberty and revolution — sort of a more hands-on Statue of Liberty — is often depicted with a phrygian hat. (The official logo for the Paris Olympics subtly references Marianne, if you look closely.)

But violent, passionate revolution doesn’t quite fit with the Olympic charter, so Les Phryges are a bit more family friendly in their insurgency. The two primary Phryges have their own identities: The Olympic Phryge is “smart,” with a "methodical mind and alluring charm," while the Paralympic Phryge is “a party animal, spontaneous and a bit hotheaded.” The Paralympic Phryge sports a prosthetic running blade, the first Paralympic mascot to feature a visible disability since Lillehammer 1994’s “Sondre.”

Les Phryges’ marketing effort is well underway. Even if you can’t get to Paris, you can purchase your own Phryge plush ($29), magnet ($9), bucket hat ($21), or backpack ($116). Get used to seeing that shade of red and those wide eyes everywhere on TV over the next few weeks.

Even as the Phryges prepare for their turn in the spotlight, the next mascot duo is already waiting in the wings. Milo and Tina, a pair of stoats — small woodland creatures — representing the Milan/Cortina 2026 Winter Games were announced in February … but you still have a couple of years before they arrive.