Meet 2026 Olympics mascots Milo and Tina : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2908x1938+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6e%2F9c%2Fc491503c42319f8f6f6f2b19ca5a%2Fgettyimages-2182729187.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2908x1938+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6e%2F9c%2Fc491503c42319f8f6f6f2b19ca5a%2Fgettyimages-2182729187.jpg" class="img" alt="Tina (left) and Milo (right) are the official mascots of the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games." fetchpriority="high"/> Tina, left, and Milo, proper, are the official mascots of the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Video games, named after the host cities of Milan and Cortina. Gabriel Bouys/AFP through Getty Pictures cover caption

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For many years, every Olympic and Paralympic Video games has been represented by a mascot of some type, with various receptions from the general public — from Atlanta's much-maligned "Izzy" in 1996 to Beijing's beloved 2022 panda to the divisive, big-eyed hats of Paris 2024.

Taking on the mantle for 2026 are Milo and Tina, a pair of scarf-wearing sibling stoats — or, as they're referred to as within the U.S., short-haired weasels.

The 2 are named after the Winter Video games' two host cities, Milan (Milano) and Cortina d'Ampezzo, and are described by organizers because the "first brazenly Gen Z mascots."

"Our stoats are two cheerful and easy-going youngsters, energetic, decided and strong-willed, typically charmingly irreverent in direction of adults and keen to claim their position as protagonists on the earth to come back," the Milano Cortina organizing committee wrote.

You'll be able to inform them aside by their coats and backstories.

Meet Tina and Milo Tina, the Olympics mascot, is cream-colored with a brown-tipped tail. She is described as a "inventive, down-to-earth sort who lives within the metropolis and likes to expertise exhibits and live shows" and is "in awe of the ability of magnificence and its skill to rework."

"I prefer to discover, to attempt new issues, to alter," she says in her bio. "Each winter, nevertheless, nothing can preserve me from returning to my beloved mountains to have enjoyable with my brother and buddies."

Milo, the Paralympics mascot, is brown with a white tummy. He lives within the mountains and likes to play sensible jokes, frolic within the snow and invent musical devices in his spare time, organizers say. He was born with no paw, however discovered to stroll utilizing his tail.

"It was by no means an enormous drawback for me, maybe as a result of I used to be at all times taught that obstacles, when you take a superb have a look at them and perceive the best way to method them, change into tremendous trampolines!" his bio reads.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4591x3087+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdc%2F14%2Ff9f5f3524cbf9737f9fa803288a2%2Fgettyimages-2248096533.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4591x3087+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdc%2F14%2Ff9f5f3524cbf9737f9fa803288a2%2Fgettyimages-2248096533.jpg" class="img" alt="Milo and Tina plushies were on display in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy as early as November." loading="lazy"/> Milo and Tina plushies had been on show in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy as early as November. Ryan Pierse/Getty Pictures cover caption

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Ryan Pierse/Getty Pictures How they acquired the gig Mascots are the ambassadors of the Video games, welcoming athletes and spectators to the host nation whereas selling its id and values on-line and overseas. It is a large resolution. And for these Video games, it began with Italian schoolkids.

As a part of the creation course of, Italy's Ministry of Schooling invited major and secondary faculty college students to submit concepts for the mascots — and acquired over 1,600 entries.

It polled the general public on its two shortlisted concepts: a pair of flowers (an edelweiss and a snowdrop) on a journey from the mountain to town, the creation of scholars in Lombardy, and the sporty stoats with Olympic goals, courtesy of scholars within the Calabria area.

Milo and Tina had been formally unveiled to the general public in February 2024, practically two years to the day earlier than the Olympics opening ceremony in Milan. They usually weren't alone: Organizers determined they might be accompanied by six little snowdrop sidekicks generally known as The Flo, flowers symbolizing rebirth and impressed by the competition runner-up.

Stoats 101 <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5500x3667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb2%2F7d%2Fe4789d154ae89991b2f3e51ab05a%2F2025-10-31t202947z-1761942583-dpaf251031x99x502138-rtrfipp-4-environment-nature-weather-climate-animals-seasons-weatherphoto-weathe.JPG" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5500x3667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb2%2F7d%2Fe4789d154ae89991b2f3e51ab05a%2F2025-10-31t202947z-1761942583-dpaf251031x99x502138-rtrfipp-4-environment-nature-weather-climate-animals-seasons-weatherphoto-weathe.JPG" class="img" alt="A stoat in a field. " loading="lazy"/> A stoat within the wild. Silas Stein/dpa through Reuters cover caption

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Silas Stein/dpa through Reuters Organizers say stoats are the "ideally suited animals to embody the modern Italian spirit" guiding the Video games, citing their liveliness, agility and velocity.

"They're curious by nature, have the shocking skill to alter the color of their fur in accordance with the seasons, and the resilience essential to adapt to a difficult habitat such because the mountains," they wrote. "They would be the ones main us to a future that's respectful of the surroundings and of variations, ever extra sustainable and brighter."

They belong to the mustelid household, which incorporates weasels, otters, ferrets, badgers and wolverines (however now not skunks, who had been reclassified primarily based on rising genetic proof within the Nineteen Nineties).

Stoats are native to Eurasia and North America and will be discovered within the Italian Alps, normally by the identify ermine, which refers to their white winter coats. In hotter months, they've mild brown fur with a white stomach, neck, toes and chin.

The year-round black recommendations on their tails had been used to embellish rugs and robes for royalty for hundreds of years. The U.S. Nationwide Park Service (NPS) says weasels had been thought of an "unbesmirchable image of purity" in Europe for generations earlier than the phrase took on its "undeserved duplicitous popularity."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2000x1333+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2Fb7%2F66e1babe4ed7901b26a0c81dc1df%2Fap110824014846.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2000x1333+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2Fb7%2F66e1babe4ed7901b26a0c81dc1df%2Fap110824014846.jpg" class="img" alt="The painting "Lady with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci, in which a woman holds a white stoat." loading="lazy"/> The portray Woman with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci gives an instance of stoats' affiliation with the Aristocracy. Markus Schreiber/AP cover caption

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Markus Schreiber/AP "I doubt anybody has ever been thanked for hurling the epithet 'weasel' at somebody. However possibly they need to be," it continues. "The weasel household is extremely resourceful, formidable, brave, agile, energetic, and downright cute in lots of cases."

Stoats could also be recognized for his or her long-necked, small and slender our bodies, however can tackle prey greater than 5 instances their very own measurement. They eat virtually the whole lot: rodents, birds, mice, voles, eggs, small snakes, bugs and extra. However stoats' most popular prey is rabbits, they usually have a novel method of trapping them: the ability of dance.

"It's thought that the exaggerated twisting, hopping, and darting about disorients and even perhaps hypnotizes some prey species," the NPS says. "The weasel will get ever nearer till it's too late for the prey to get away, with the final hop touchdown on high of the animal rapidly adopted by the killing chunk."