Sochi Mascot Competition

Across the world in Sochi, organizers of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games kicked off a mascot competition with a public selection process involving 11 finalist mascots.

Scanning the choices on Fourth Place Medal and RIA Novosti, I quickly narrowed the field with three Nick picks.

First, take out all of the animals. The bears (one is too similar to the 1980 Moscow Olympic mascot, Misha), the leopard, the too-close-to-Twitter-mascot bird, etc., all seem too silly and too difficult to replicate as a body-suit costume.

Next, take out the foursome of Russian dolls (too many mascots clutter the field).

This leaves Father Frost (St. Nick of Russia ... for some reason, a Saint Nicholas Olympic mascot has a nice ring to it), the Snow Flake girl and Fire Boy.

Earlier today, the first time I saw the renderings, these last two options (the girl and boy) appeared as a pair, and they seemed decent as a duo. Too bad I have just one ballot.

Photos via Novosti