Meet your Sochi Olympic mascots: the Polar Bear, the Hare, and the Leopard. The trio was selected in a national online poll from 24,000 submissions and has its own on the official Sochi Games website. All three animals love winter sports, their official biographies say, though they have their own proclivities: skiing for the Bear, snowboarding for the Leopard, and ice skating for the Hare.
Of the three, the Leopard is portrayed as the neighborhood kid in the southern city of Sochi, residing in 鈥渢he highest peak of the snowy mountains in the Caucasus,鈥� according to the Games' website. He鈥檚 also of President Vladimir Putin, who praised him as 鈥渟trong, powerful, fast and beautiful鈥� 鈥� but also worryingly endangered. Coincidentally, Putin on the eve of the Games, cuddling with the Leopard鈥檚 real-life cousin.
