©IOC

Roni the Raccoon stood out for two reasons. Firstly, this mascot replaced a raccoon that had actually existed. Indeed, Lake Placid had an animal of this type called Rocky, who was to have served as the OG mascot. Unfortunately, Rocky died just before the start of the event and had to be replaced by Roni. His second particularity was that this was the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that a mascot had been disseminated on a large scale and in various forms.