Sochi Airport

Several Sochi 2014 Ambassadors, mostly famous Russian athletes and celebrities, have proposed their ideas for the Sochi 2014 mascot to inspire people across Russia to enter the recently launched mascot competition for the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

NHL legend Alexander Ovechkin, top model Natalia Vodyanova, Olympic medallists Oksana Domnina, Maksim Shabalin and Albert Demchenko, Paralympic champion Olesya Vladykina, popular singer Diana Gurtskaya and Sochi native Olympic medallist Alexey Voevoda have all begun working on their own entries.

The Ambassadors have shared some of the ideas on how the mascots could look.

Alexander Ovechkin, international ice hockey star and two-times world champion, has suggested that the mascot should be a happy sheep on a snowboard or holding a hockey stick and highlighted his preference for a humorous design.

“I hope the white tiger – a threatened species in need of our support – will become the Sochi 2014 mascot,” famed model Natalia Vodyanova said. “The Sochi Games are destined to become a major global event that will change public opinion on many issues, such as ecology and our attitude towards the natural world. My tiger would be majestic and gracious, not at all a toy-like animal. I’d ensure it borrows the Olympic Rings, just like the Moscow 1980 Olympic Bear – I was very fond of that.”

Maksim Shabalin, world champion and bronze medal winner at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, believes that the mascot should be an animal with a kind and gentle appearance.

Oksana Domnina, world champion and bronze medal winner at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, thinks that the mascot should be a dolphin which would personify Sochi’s natural beauty. Oksana said she would definitely "dress" her dolphin in figure skates.

The snowman, suggested as the mascot idea by Diana Gurtskaya, the celebrated Russian blind musician, was drawn by her three-year-old son, Kostya.

Albert Demchenko, silver medal winner at the 2006 Turin Olympic Winter Games, has proposed a "golden" fish which grants wishes to help bring many victories to the Russian Team at the Sochi Games.

Alexey Voevoda, bobsleigh racer and two-times silver medal winner at the Olympic Winter Games, suggested a seahorse, hinting at the use of a pun in the Russian language, as the Russian word for seahorse sounds like the word for skate. On the one hand, skates are a key element of the Olympic Winter Games, while on the other hand the seahorse is the symbol of Sochi.