As the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics is approaching, foreign athletes who have arrived in China have also begun to show off what they have seen and heard in the Winter Olympic village on social media platforms. Among them, the mascot of the Winter Olympics, the "Ice Pier", has become the "big star" with the highest rate of appearance in their lenses, and is sought after by a large number of foreign athletes and foreign journalists.
Czech figure skater Natalie Tashkrelova recently released a VLOG about the Beijing Winter Olympic Village, showing the various gifts and souvenirs she received at the Winter Olympic Village - backpacks printed with the Beijing Winter Olympic logo, red-wrapped Gift Packs, etc., but her favorite is a "ice pier" doll.
"I've been waiting for this little guy!" Natalie said happily in an interview with the Global Times reporter, "I almost cried at that time." She told reporters that she and her teammates had previously discussed buying keychains and pillows printed with panda "ice piers" because they were so cute.
Also thrilled to see the "ice pier" to play "Hi" is Finnish female ice hockey player Petra Neminin. She showed a small video of the "ice pier" pillow on social media, showing her fans how the "ice pier" pillow provided by the Beijing Winter Olympic Village "transformed" into a blanket in a second.
Brazilian steel frame snowmobile player Nicole Silvera is also a huge fan of "Ice Pier". In an interview, she sent many photos of her in the Winter Olympic Village to global times reporters, many of which were photos with the mascot in a cute shape, from "holding hands" with the statue of "Ice Pier", to selfies with the pillow of "Ice Pier", and "Ice Pier" and the Brazilian flag.
Silveira told the Global Times that the ice pier is indeed the star of the Olympic village, and many athletes like it because it is so cute.
There are also athletes who plan to share the "ice pier" with their families and lovers. Swiss skier Nicholas Huber told the Global Times that he was going to bring the "ice pier" doll back to Switzerland to give to his grandmother. "Can anyone not like pandas?" They're so cute," said Huber, who has been to China before, but has never seen a panda in person, "The next time I come back to China, I must see the pandas with my own eyes!" ”
Not only athletes are "circled" by the strength of the "ice pier", but also foreign journalists. Recently, two videos of Japanese reporters buying a large number of "ice pier" badges to appear on camera and broadcast, and escorting the "ice pier" dolls all the way to the dressing room have become popular on social networks. The Japanese TV reporter, Tsujioka Yoshido, said he had brought only one coat with him to cover the Winter Olympics, but his daily broadcasts showed a variety of different "ice pier" badges in front of the camera, and later, the reporter actually bought another dress — a T-shirt around the "ice pier".
According to public media information, the idea of "ice pier" originated from the design team of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Their initial shortlisted work image is not the panda seen now, but the rock sugar gourd. In the end, the design team retained the "ice shell" of the sugar gourd's appearance and identified the image as "a panda wrapped in an ice shell.".
An interesting detail worth mentioning is that in the animated film "Our Winter Olympics", the mascots "Ice Pier" and "Snow Rongrong" appear many times, but they do not speak, but make a babbling sound. Why is that? It turned out that according to the rules of the IOC, mascots could not have gender differences. Once you speak, it is easy to distinguish between gender, so when the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee signed an agreement with the producer, it wrote the clause that "you cannot speak when using the image of 'ice pier' and 'snow rongrong' and should be gender neutral".