Cobi

This article is about Cobi. For COBI building blocks, see Cobi (building blocks).

Cobi
Cobi, the mascot of the 1992 Olympic Games
Known for	Official Olympic mascot
Term	1992
Successor	Håkon and Kristin

Cobi was the official mascot of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. He is a Catalan Sheepdog in Cubist style inspired by the interpretations of Picasso of a masterpiece from Velázquez, Las Meninas. Cobi was designed by Javier Mariscal (1950-). The mascot was unveiled to the public in 1987. His name was derived from the Barcelona Olympic Organising Committee (COOB).

Before and during the Games, Cobi was shown in a variety of advertisements for Olympic sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Brother Industries and Danone. He even had his own TV series, The Cobi Troupe. He also appeared on an extensive range of souvenirs, dubbed Cobiana, which proved to be a lucrative source of income. During the Games an inflatable Cobi was tethered to the Barcelona waterfront.

References

• "Cobi the pooch: not your average Olympic mascot", Anchorage Daily News, quoted in Robert E Rinehart (1998), Players All: Performances in Contemporary Sport, Indiana University, p137, ISBN 0-253-21223-5
• Donald McNeill (1999), Urban Change and the European Left, Routledge (UK), p47-8, ISBN 0-415-17062-1

External links

• Picture of Cobi on Beijing 2008 site
• Picture of Cobi on the web site Olympic and Sports Logos and Mascots by Alexander Aldaver