Associate consultant at LPM Communications, David Brunat is the author of around ten books, including
ENA Circus
(Éditions du Cerf, 2018).
A flame, a motto, a hymn, laurels, etc.
: all this is good.
But the Olympic arsenal would not be complete without a mascot!
One or more, as is the case with the pair of “phryges” just unveiled with great fanfare by the Paris 2024 Games committee.
This use of mascots does not date back to the Greek calends – and it is also quite hard to imagine stuffed animals or other childish figurines in Olympia, Corinth or Sparta in the time of Pericles or Leonidas.
He appeared for the first time in the history of Olympism at the Winter Games in Grenoble in 1968, in the form of a little fellow with a smile, facetiously perched on skis and baptized “
Schuss
”.
The Olympic mascot has since become the festive and hospitable heroine of each edition, winter and summer.
A good-natured ambassador of the host country.
Funny or ridiculous, affectionate or pathetic, it depends.
Figures or animals (dog, cat, bear, panda, etc.), the mascots are supposed to entertain and bring people together under a peaceful and welcoming banner.
These totems and symbols can give food for thought to sociologists, historians, artists, communicators and other philosophers in need of scholarly analyzes and meditations on playful representations of modern Olympism.
For the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2024, a bold choice has been made, which has its roots in revolutionary mythology, with the emblematic Phrygian cap, but also in ancient history, since it is reported that the Romans wore the freed slaves.
The “phryges”, a fantasy inspired by the Phrygian cap, constitute an original way of recalling the spirit of 1789. To suggest the revolutionary force of sport.
And to underline a form of historical continuity and long time in the rich and centuries-old, even multi-millennial Olympic gesture.
We will taste or not the (voluntarily?) kitsch design of the two mascots, dressed in red, cheerful and wearing sneakers.
One, shorter and stockier than the other, the Paralympic mascot, with a blade on his right leg.
Both animated by a clear blue look, and giving off a general impression of good health and affable robustness that one imagines linked to the practice of sport.
May Paris 2024 be a celebration of muscle and soul and show with brilliance that sport is and remains a humanism!
David Brunat
Visible tricolor emblem, eye in the shape of a cockade, covering Phrygian cap and made of a beautiful flashy red: the Paris Games therefore show the color!
Republican.
Revolutionary.
Patriotic (even if some of the stuffed animals and related products are made in China).
Marianne rather than Milo de Crotone, Delacroix and his democratic
Liberté guiding the people
rather than Coubertin and his aristocratic fiber, the motto “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” as a watermark rather than “Citius, Altius, Fortius”.
The promotion of sport for all rather than the exaltation of the gods of the stadium.
Whether or not we appreciate these mascots from an aesthetic point of view, let's admit that an effort of intelligence has been made: the search for an ideal and not pure decorative childishness.
Perhaps some will take advantage of this symbolic cap to give a memorial tip to the man who was one of the great architects of French victories at the Olympic Games.
of Grenoble, namely... Honoré Bonnet.
Let's hope that for our tricolor Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the Phrygian cap will not turn into a dunce's cap, and that by engaging in all these stadiums, grounds, pools and other sports settings under the colors of France, they will glean gold and silver and bronze in abundance.
And let's finish these lines by paying homage to one of the most original French champions in the history of athletics, Raymond Boisset, normalien, graduate of letters, record holder of France in the 400 meters.
And author of a beautiful book on the
Olympic Games
published in 1946.
This fine scholar who directed the Higher School of Physical Education, ancestor of Insep, declared one day: "
The joy of man, the dignity of man, this is what sport can bring to it is learned from childhood, if it is not only a physical activity, a technique, but a state of mind, a state of soul.
»
May the "phryges" and their godfathers or disciples help us to cultivate this magnificent state of mind which is called sportsmanship, a living and invigorating union of soul and body, of fraternity and competition, of self-love and respect for others!
May Paris 2024 be a celebration of muscle and soul and show with brilliance that sport is and remains a humanism!