Rio de Janeiro - The first Olympic mascot appeared in 1968 at the Grenoble Winter Olympics and since then we've seen a roll call of memorable and not-so-memorable designs, from Hodori the tiger at Seoul '88 to Syd, Olly and Millie at Sydney 2000.
At Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the task of following the rather forgettable London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville goes to Vinicius and Tom. Yellow-furred Vinicius is a mixture of different Brazilian animals and stands for the diversity of Brazil's people, culture and nature. He takes his name from the Brazilian musician Vinicius de Moraes.
Blue-skinned Tom is the Paralympic mascot and represents the unique mixture of Brazilian flora. His hair is made of an abundance of leaves and he takes his name from another Brazilian musician, Tom Jobim. Together, Jobim and de Moraes composed one of Brazil's most famous songs, the bossa-nova classic The Girl From Ipanema.
DPA