Håkon_and_Kristin
Håkon, Kristin and Sondre
Official mascots of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway
Håkon and Kristin were the official mascots of the 1994 Winter Olympics and Sondre was the official mascot of the 1994 Winter Paralympics, both held in Lillehammer, Norway.
Håkon and Kristin are two happy Norwegian children, a boy and a girl, both dressed in Viking clothes. Although they wear medieval clothes referring to their historical roots, they are the children of today and express interests and visions of youth as environmental awareness. The mascots are created by author Kari Werner and her husband illustrator Werner Grossmann from an idea of architect Javier Ramirez Campuzano, who had designed the corporate identity of the Mexico Pavilion for the 1994 Winter Olympic Games.[1][2]
Eight pairs of Norwegian children, each representing a region of the country, were selected from about 10,000 subscribers aged 10 to 11 years old to play the mascots.[1]
Two venues of the 1994 Winter Olympics located side by side, had the same name as the Mascots: the Håkons Hall and Kristins Hall.[1]
For the Paralympic Games, the committee subsequently requested visual artists Tor Lindrupsen and Janne Solem for the creation of a new mascot along the creative lines of Håkon and Kristin. They created Sondre, an amputated troll to represent Norse mythology origins.
