As a contender for Brisbane 2032 Olympic mascot, the ibis is both trashed and treasured

At first, it looked like an April Fool’s Day joke when the Australian white ibis emerged as a contender to become the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games mascot.

”I had to check the date,” said Daniel Beniston, who lives in Sydney.

But this was real.

Queensland Sports Minister Stirling Hinchliffe went to bat for the bird, affectionately called a “bin chicken” because it is famous for stealing food out of rubbish bins.

”As the Member for Sandgate, I’ve got a quiet sort of soft touch for the idea that the ibis might play a role,” Hinchliffe said at a press conference. “And I know there’s plenty of Queenslanders who think that’s something that might be appropriate as well.

”Debate has been fast and furious throughout Australia. The most recent Olympic mascot, Beijing 2022′s panda Bing Dwen Dwen, flew off store shelves during the Winter Olympics and is still in demand, symbolizing how important a mascot can be for fan engagement as well as revenue.

”We have an amazing array of natural fauna all over Australia,” said Beniston, Managing Director of Kingdom Sports Group, to Around the Rings. “There will certainly be more options available to select something appropriate that has better market appeal for both the Olympics and Paralympics than the ibis.

”Whilst it is a native animal, maybe it’s best a government official leaves it to the best selection panel available, the kids of Australia.”

Kingdom Sports Group was a licensee for Rio 2016 and Gold Coast 2018, so Beniston understands what it takes to create products that have market appeal.

So why not a koala or kangaroo? Well, the prevailing wisdom is organizers should choose something that hasn’t been used before.

Matilda the Kangaroo was the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane while Borobi the Koala was the mascot for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, a concerted effort was made to avoid those two obvious candidates. For the first time in Olympic history, there were three Olympic mascots: a duck-billed platypus (Syd for Sydney), a kookaburra (Olly for Olympics) and an echidna or spiny anteater (Millie for the new millennium). They also symbolized the water, air and earth. The Paralympic mascot was Lizzie, a frill-necked lizard. Meanwhile, the Australian Olympic Committee licensed the boxing kangaroo.

The Queensland coat of arms features a red deer and a brolga, a bird in the crane family.

”Expect something unusual such as a cassowary, dolphin or something tropical that represents the Great Barrier Reef,” Beniston said. “Inspiration could be taken from local Aboriginal tribes which have Totems, and community consultation would provide a great opportunity to put forward a design that represents all Australians.

”At least we have eight years before a decision needs to be made.”

At the same time the ibis was making headlines, Qatar 2022 introduced its mascot for the FIFA World Cup: La’eeb, which is the Arabic word meaning super-skilled player.

However, people weren’t sure what it was supposed to be. Called a “fun and mischievous character,” it looks like the cloth headdress worn in Qatar and is “whoever a football fan wants him to be,” says the official description.

At least people know what an ibis is.

However, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said it is “highly unlikely” that the bin chicken will win the gold in the race for Olympic mascot.

”I’m quite sure there’ll be a lot of public debate, but I don’t know if the ibis is going to rate there as number one,” Palaszczuk said.

Cameron Costello, a member of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council and the state’s Koala Advisory Council, is still holding out hope for the koala despite its recent appearance at the Commonwealth Games. It has been listed as endangered and he wants Queensland to be known as “the koala capital of the world.”

”We’re at a really critical point in time,” Costello said. “In 2032 and prior to that, the eyes of the world are going to be upon us. It’s an opportunity for us to look at how we can use the momentum of the Olympics to actually get our endangered species back to the right place they should be.”

And there are other well-known Australian animals.

”I still prefer the wombat,” said a longtime Olympic mascot collector.

Unfortunately, that marsupial has already had its time on the world stage, although unofficially.

Fatso, the fat-arsed wombat, was introduced on “The Dream with Roy & HG,” a nightly television show during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He was quickly adopted by fans.

Originally animated, a plush version of Fatso came out and some Australian athletes took him to the medal podium with them, annoying officials.

A statue of Fatso was erected after the Games outside the Olympic Stadium, but it was stolen in 2010. Ten years later, a new statue was installed.

Now that’s staying power.

While Brisbane has many years to decide, the next Olympic mascot announcement is imminent. There are rumblings that Paris 2024 might take an extremely unorthodox route by choosing a hat.

Not a mascot wearing a hat like Sam the Eagle from Los Angeles. Just a hat.

The Phrygian cap (also called a Liberty cap) worn during the French Revolution has reportedly been seen in drawings.

”We want a mascot that is a little different from what has been done in the past,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet told L’Equipe. “The mascot is a strong element of the identity of the Games. “It must say things and speak to everyone, which is also the difficulty, that it appeals to young and old alike.”

The figure first recognized as an Olympic mascot also came from France. “Shuss,” a cartoon character on skis with a round red and white head, represented the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics. At that time, it wasn’t called a mascot, but rather the “personnage officiel” of the Games. Creator Aline Lafargue had only 24 hours to finalize her design, which was marketed on souvenirs and was part of a television campaign.

Since then, Olympic mascots have been loved, hated or pretty much forgotten.

There were initial doubts about the 1992 mascot, Cobi. After all, the Catalan sheepdog had both eyes on the same side of his head. He eventually became so beloved that people cried when he floated out of the stadium at the closing ceremony.

Then Izzy from Atlanta set the bar low in 1996. The blue blob originally named “Whatizit” was supposed to morph into different shapes for each sport, but was mostly sidelined during the Games.

Izzy was chosen over such Georgia icons as the peach, peanut, possum, bulldog and phoenix rising from the ashes -- symbolizing rebirth after Atlanta burned to the ground during the Civil War. The phoenix became the popular “Blaze” for the Paralympics.

London introduced one-eyed metal blobs, Wenlock and Mandeville for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Mandeville’s design made it look like the mascot had wet its pants.

Brisbane 2032 has plenty of time to try to avoid missteps.

”This is something that we can work on as a community to help tell our story to the globe,” Hinchliffe said, “and we’ll do that together.”