Roni (mascot)

Roni is the

Olympic mascot The Olympic mascots are fictional characters who represent the cultural heritage of the location where the Olympic Games are taking place. They are often an animal native to the area or human figures. One of the first Olympic mascots was create ...

of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, created by Don Moss. The mascot is a

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

, which is a familiar animal from the mountainous region of the

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains ( ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York (state), New York which form a circular dome approximately wide and covering about . The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the hi ...

where Lake Placid is situated. The name Roni comes from the word ''racoon'' in

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages () are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, almost all surviving I ...

, the language of the native people from the region of the State of New York and Lake Placid, and was chosen by Lake Placid school children. Part of his face and the black-and-white mask around his eyes are a nod to the sunglasses and hat worn by competitors. There are different versions of Roni, practising different sports and the five colours of the Olympic rings can be found on some versions.Olympic Winter Games Mascots from Innsbruck 1976 to Sochi 2014
Olympic.org Lake Placid had a live four-legged mascot, a raccoon called ''Rocky''. Before the Games started he was controversially replaced by a costumed human mascot renamed Roni. Serving as the face of the XIII Olympic Winter Games, Hawaiian-American Kriss Lambert performed as Roni Raccoon attired head-to-toe inside a 2-meter (6'6") raccoon outfit. Kriss was filmed doing every event - except ski jump - prior to the Olympic Games, with the taped footage televised during the Games to introduce each event. Lambert also popularly represented the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics at major events such as the Macy's Day Parade,

Super Bowl XIV Super Bowl XIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 1979 Los Angeles Rams season, Los Angeles Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh S ...

, etc. in lead-up to the Olympic Games. He was rinkside generating excitement during the men's

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and hosts United States men's national ice hockey team">USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

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