The Tiger Becomes the World Friendship Games 2024 Mascot

The Tiger became the mascot of the first World Friendship Games. The character for the new multi-sport tournament to be held this September in Moscow and Yekaterinburg was chosen in several stages with the involvement of recognized experts and a special jury. The results were announced at the presentation in the Friendship Games fanzone of the World Youth Festival.

The mascot creation process started in November 2023. At the first stage, the Organizing Committee requested experts of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center to determine, using focus groups, the list of characters on the basis of which the visualized images would be made.

"As part of the mascot design for such a significant event, we conducted a series of creative focus groups with spectators and fans of sports competitions of different ages. We managed to find out that the mascot of such international multi-sport competitions should not be something abstract. It should be embodied in a specific character, which will enable empathy. This image should be understandable not only to Russians, but also to our foreign guests, necessarily associated with friendship, directly correlate with sports and convey a charge of optimism", - said the head of All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center projects Ivan Chekhovsky.

At the next stage, the Organizing Committee held a competition among the leading animation studios of Russia for the right to develop visualization of the characters selected during focus groups. Soyuzmultfilm, one of the oldest and most famous companies, was the winner of the contest. Artists of the studio designed several dozens of sketches of the selected characters, from which a short-list of three applicants was selected that best matched the brief of the Organizing Committee.

"The Soyuzmultfilm studio has vast experience in designing sports series, but creating a mascot is a completely new experiment for us, we have never done this before. It was a great team effort, we consulted with athletes and sports experts to most accurately reflect the selected characters' individual character traits that would reflect the features of the Friendship Games as well," said Maria Savinykh, creative director of Soyuzmultfilm.

Then in the process of designing the mascot an expert jury was formed under the chairmanship of the President of the International Boxing Association (IBA) Umar Kremlev, which included famous athletes, movie and pop stars, ambassadors of the World Friendship Games - a total of 22 people. Among them: the most titled athlete in the history of synchronized swimming Svetlana Romashina, two-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, Games ambassador Roman Vlasov, ambassador of the Games volunteer program, singer Klava Koka, director Fyodor Bondarchuk, director of the Moscow Circus Askold Zapashny, director of the Moscow Zoo Svetlana Akulova, sports blogger and ultramarathoner Anastasia Tukmacheva.

The jury members chose from three contenders, and they included a tiger, a bear and a squirrel.

The winner was determined in a hard and uncompromising struggle. The tiger's lead over the competitors was only a few votes.

"We believe that the jury's choice turned out to be very successful! Our mascot is dynamic, sporty and, despite the character's image, friendly. I hope that the fans and participants of the tournament will like him. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the jury members, the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center and Soyuzmultfilm. It was a big job and a difficult choice. But we coped with it perfectly. Welcome to the World Friendship Games team, Tiger!" - said Alexey Sorokin, CEO of the World Friendship Games Organizing Committee.

The selection of the mascot's name will be the final stage of the design process. It is planned that a wide audience of fans will take part in this process. The Organizing Committee of the World Friendship Games will announce the format and venues for selecting the name of the mascot in the near future.

During the preparation and holding the Games, the mascot will be involved in a large number of events, including: events for volunteers, spectators and athletes, the cultural program, ceremonies and many other activities at sports and support venues. The image of the mascot will also be used in the information and advertising campaigns of the Games.

The World Friendship Games is a new international multi-sport tournament to be held for the first time in 2024 in two Russian cities, Moscow and Ekaterinburg. From September 15 to 29, more than 6,500 strongest athletes from around the world will compete in 36 sports of the Friendship Games program (acrobatic rock-and-roll, badminton, basketball, Basketball 3x3, breaking, boxing, BMX freestyle, mountain bike, beach volleyball, whitewater slalom, jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, equestrian sport, track-and-field athletics, table tennis, padel, swimming, diving, open water diving, sambo, synchronized swimming rock climbing, skateboarding, MMA, wrestling, gymnastics, sports programming, archery, triathlon, taekwondo, weightlifting, fencing, beach football, rhythmic gymnastics and chess). The winners will receive substantial prize money and medals made of pure gold.

The World Friendship Games will be held at the most modern sports facilities in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. The heart of the new tournament will be the Luzhniki Sports Complex in Moscow, which will host competitions in 18 sports of the tournament program, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.

The purpose of the Games is to create an effective platform for high-performance sport, to provide athletes from all countries and sports organizations with access to international sports activities and to develop new formats of international sports cooperation. The Games declare respect for the human right to participate in sport and not to be involved in politics. The only criterion for participation in the Games is the athletes' sporting achievements.