The Paris 2024 Olympic Mascot is Inspired by Iconic French ‘Liberty Hat’

There will be no cuddly pandas or lovable coyotes or made-up characters representing the Paris 2024 Olympics as a mascot.

Instead, the inspiration has been taken from ... a hat. But it's not just any red hat, it's an iconic one in France that hearkens back to the French Revolution.

The Paris Olympic committee revealed on Nov. 14 that cartoon mascots inspired by Phrygian caps, also known as liberty caps, will be the official mascots of the 2024 Games. The mascots are officially known as the Phryges, which is pronounced fri-jee-uhs.

"The Olympic Phryge and the Paralympic Phryge are taking the lead of a tribe which always has its trainers on," the Paris 2024 organizers tweeted. "What could be better than little Phrygian caps to lead the revolution through sport and accompany us to the #Paris2024 Games!"

The Phryges are in the French colors of red, white and blue with a gold Paris 2024 logo on their chests. Their expressive eyes are made of a knot of ribbons known as a "cockade of France" that is the French national ornament, according to a news release.

The caps represent "freedom, identity and spirit in France," Savannah Guthrie said on TODAY Monday while making the announcement. The hats are a regular sight in France, where they also adorn coins and stamps.

A video accompanying the announcement tweet shows one of the mascots on a skateboard and another one running with a prosthetic blade to represent the athletes from the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. Basketball, wheelchair basketball, and archery are also featured in the video.

"We chose an ideal rather than an animal," Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said in a press conference on Nov. 14, according to a news release. "We chose the Phrygian cap because it's a very strong symbol for the French Republic. For French people, it's a very well-known object that is a symbol of freedom, an object that will represent mascots all across the world. The fact that the Paralympics mascot has a visible disability also sends a strong message to promote inclusion."

The French were actually the first to invent an Olympic mascot. The Phryges take their place in a lineage of Olympic mascots that dates back to Shuss, the little man on skis from the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France.

Over the years, there have been a range of animals from dachsunds to beavers used as Olympic mascots, as well as completely made-up characters, like the one at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. (We'll never forget you, Izzy).

The most recent mascot was Bing Dwen Dwen, a panda that represented this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The next Summer Olympics will be held in Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11 in 2024. The TODAY crew is already looking forward to it.

"Guys, it's just a mere 620 days until we sit every afternoon and have a rosé while covering the Olympics on NBC," Savannah said.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com