Roni is the
Olympic mascot
The Olympic mascots are fictional characters, usually an animal native to the area or human figures, who represent the cultural heritage of the place where the Olympic and Paralympic Games are taking place. The mascots are often used to help ...
of the
1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, created by Don Moss. The mascot is a
raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
, which is a familiar animal from the mountainous region of the
Adirondacks
The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...
where
Lake Placid is situated. The name Roni comes from the word ''racoon'' in
Iroquoian
The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking.
As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian ...
, the language of the native people from the region of the State of New York and Lake Placid, and was chosen by Lake Placid school children.
Part of his face and the black-and-white mask around his eyes are a nod to the sunglasses and hat worn by competitors. There are different versions of Roni, practising different sports and the five colours of the Olympic rings can be found on some versions.
[Olympic Winter Games Mascots from Innsbruck 1976 to Sochi 2014]
Olympic.org
Lake Placid had a live four-legged mascot, a raccoon called ''Rocky''. Before the Games started he was controversially replaced by a costumed human mascot renamed Roni.
Serving as the face of the XIII Olympic Winter Games, Hawaiian-American Kriss Lambert performed as Roni Raccoon attired head-to-toe inside a 2-meter (6'6") raccoon outfit. Kriss was filmed doing every event - except ski jump - prior to the Olympic Games, with the taped footage televised during the Games to introduce each event. Lambert also popularly represented the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics at major events such as the
Macy's Day Parade,
Super Bowl XIV, etc. in lead-up to the Olympic Games.
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