Olympiad-2014 in Sochi will have three talismans

Three symbols - a leopard, a polar bear and a hare - have been chosen to be talismans of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games to be held in the resort city of Sochi, Krasnodar Territory. The symbols of the Paralympic Games will be Raylet and Snowflake.

Today Russia has voted for talismans of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. The first place by the count of votes was won by the leopard, the runner-up was the polar bear; and the hare took the third place. The Organizing Committee of Sochi-2014 decided to approve three talismans.

The start to the all-Russian contest of talisman ideas for the Games in Sochi was given on September 1, 2010. For 3 months anyone could send his or her idea (or even ideas) about a talisman(s), see the works of other participants and personally evaluate the drawings. Over a million persons followed the contest on the Internet; every week the jury received over a thousand new proposals, the website of Channel One reports.

In December 2010, the jury of experts, set up under the "Sochi-2014" Organizing Committee, reviewed more than 24,000 works presented to the contest, and chose a list of 10 Olympic and 3 Paralympic talisman ideas, which included the hare, dolphin, brown and white bears, the bullfinch, the leopard, the Sun, Father Frost, a raylet and a snowflake.

Father Frost - the favourite of the talisman race - was excluded from the list. As explained by Ivan Urgant in a special Channel One TV show, it was done to exclude the risk for the symbol of the New Year to become further the property of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).