The teletubbies are filling up the dead air at the fencing championships. What the heck is going on? Ah. nevermind. The French women’s fencing champion just ran the green one thru. If only, though. I’m beginning to realize that if CBC Radio had this much dead air, there would be nobody listening. It’s been Chinese spectators waving at themselves whenever they come onto the jumbotron for about 15 minutes.Oh, finally. Two Italian women have won, and a Korean. I didn’t hear their names because CBC’s feed was lagging.Vensalli and Grabassi? I wasn’t paying attention. (Maria Valentina Vezzali won gold, Andy says.) Ack. They just welcomed back BeiBei, NiNi, HuanHuan, JingJing, Ying Ying, the five Olympic Teletubbies. Or it’s a repeat of before… let’s just say, now that they’re done, the applause is…lacking.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2008.
From Reuters: Here is a list of the Olympic mascots and their names from the first mascot 40 years ago to Beijing:1968 Grenoble, Winter – Schuss, unofficial (but first) Olympic mascot is a man on skis1972 Munich, Summer – Waldi, colourful striped dachshund1976 Montreal, Summer – Amik, beaver1976 Innsbruck, Winter – Snowman1980 Moscow, Summer – Misha, a cute bear, and Vigri, a seal1980 Lake Placid, Winter – Roni the Raccoon1984 Los Angeles, Summer – Sam the Eagle1984 Sarajevo, Winter – Vuchko, a wolf1988 Seoul, Summer – Hodori, the tiger1988 Calgary, Winter – Hidy and Howdy, brother and sister polar bears dressed in cowboy attire1992 Barcelona, Summer – Cobi, modern looking dog1992 Albertville, Winter – Magique, half man, half star1994 Lillehammer, Winter – Haakon and Kristin, two children in Norwegian dress1996 Atlanta, Summer – Izzy, abstract figure1998 Nagano, Winter – Snow owls Sukki, Nokki, Lekki, Tsukki2000 Sydney, Summer – Australian animals Ollie, Syd, Millie.2002 Salt Lake City, Winter – Powder, Coal and Copper, a coyote, rabbit and black bear2004 Athens, Summer – Athena, the protectress of Athens and the goddess of wisdom, and Phevos, the god of light and music2006 Torino, Winter – Snowball and ice cube Neve and Gliz2008 Beijing, Summer – The Fuwa in five colours BeiBei, NiNi, HuanHuan, JingJing, Ying Ying