Nanjing (China) – 4th December – Nanjinglele the official mascot for the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games was unveiled a few days ago.
NANJINGLELE is inspired by a unique natural feature of the host city known as the Rain-Flower Pebble (also translated as River Stone). The design of the mascot takes the typical shape and appearance of this stone but in a creative and artistic way, highlighting the colours from the emblems palette.
The word “Lele” represents the sound of stones colliding together and is pronounced like the Chinese word meaning happiness or joy.
NYOGOC unveiled the official mascot at a grand ceremony held at the Nanjing Olympic Centre, one of the main competition venues for the upcoming Games. More than 4,000 people, including Olympic Chinese champions, students, locals, government officials and sponsor representatives, attended the ceremony.
Nanjinglele was chosen following a nationwide mascot design competition launched by NYOGOC earlier this year. More than 1.2 million students from more than 900 colleges across China participated in the competition.
During the event, Cao Weixing, Vice Governor of Jiangsu Province and Vice President of NYOGOC, presented an award to the winning designer Mr Cui Xinye, 25, a college student.
The 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games (www.nanjing2014.org) will take place in Nanjing in August 2014 and will bring together more than 3,800 young athletes from over 200 countries and regions. With 28 sports on the Olympic programme, athletes will take part in high level competitions, and will also be able to take part in a series of cultural and educational activities off the field of play.
