Misha and Izzy - 1980 and 1996 Olympic mascots

Do you remember ? On this day in 1980 began The Olympic Games in Moscow. United States and many other countries boycotted the Games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan . But don't talk about sad things. I bring to you the mascot Misha - a nice bear.

Misha (Moscow, USSR 1980) - Hi! I'm Misha the Bear Cub. I was the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. The people of Moscow chose me because there are alot of nice bears like me in Russia. The best part of my job as mascot was that I got to travel all over the world to spread the word about the Olympic Games. In fact, I even got to travel in space with two cosmonauts.

Also on this day but in the year 1996 the 26th (summer) Olympic Games were started in Atlanta. The mascot of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta was an amorphous abstract fantasy figure, created by International Mascots. It carried the name "Izzy", derived from "Whatizit?" because no one seemed to know exactly what "Izzy" really was.