BEIJING SNAPSHOT: Olympic winners get plush panda then medal

Feb. 7, 2022 Updated Mon., Feb. 7, 2022 at 7:13 p.m.

Miho Takagi of Japan waves during a ceremony after winning the silver medal in the women's speedskating 1,500-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Monday in Beijing. (Associated Press)

Associated Press

BEIJING – When most champions get off the slopes or the ice at the Beijing Olympics, they are handed Bing Dwen Dwen, the chubby panda mascot of the Games.

Where are the medals? They usually come later at a special ceremony – a system introduced in 1988 at the Calgary Games.

But immediately after competition, the winning athletes in Beijing receive a plush toy panda, stuffed inside a plastic shell that is meant to represent ice. Bing, in fact, means ice in Chinese. The toy is also adorned with a golden wreath.

A similar ritual unfolded at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago. There, immediately after winning gold, silver or bronze, medalists got Soohorang, a striped white tiger that served as the mascot for those Games.

The tradition of giving a mascot to the winners has existed for more than a decade at the Youth Olympics.