A white tiger named 'Soohorang' and an Asian black bear called 'Bandabi' were unveiled on Monday as the two mascots for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Pyeongchang scheduled to begin from February 9 to 25.
“Soohorang and Bandabi will be your good friends and promote the Pyeongchang Olympic Games to the whole world,” Lee hee-beom, president of the Games organising committee, told students during a ceremony at Hoeng Gye elementary school in Pyeongchang.
Derived from Korean words, Soohorang is made of two words - 'protection' (Sooho) and 'tiger' (ho-rang-i).
The white tiger is considered a sacred guardian animal in South Korea, with some locals considering the Korean peninsula to be tiger-shaped.
The 1988 Seoul Olympics also featured a tiger mascot.
The Paralympic Games mascot “Bandabi” represents courage and strong willpower, organisers said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.