For Nolann Bezard, it has become a daily reflex: click on the X icon on his phone and type the keyword “Phryge”. Several thousand videos of the Olympic Games mascot then appear before his eyes. It takes him less than ten seconds to exclaim: “This one, for example: the Phryge who runs the 100m at the Stade de France, it’s me! » Before adding, phlegmatic: “Except no one knows.” This video has over a million views, but no one knows me. And that’s very good. » The 17-year-old young man, a final year student in Montargis (Loiret), happily accepts this status, half-star, half-anonymous. Only his close friends know his dual identity.
The high school student was one of the privileged few to have donned the costume of a Phryge, two hundred dancers or actors for ninety mascots. A small number, but gigantic media exposure. Which has turned into an inexhaustible source of memes for social networks. On a wacky soundtrack or a howl that has become classic: “The Phryyyyyyyge!” It’s the Phryyyyyyyge! ! », the mascot throws a dance, attempts a moonwalk or, drama in Eiffel Tower stadium, falls to the cries of terror of the spectators.
From the living room sofa to the locker rooms, where athletes asked to have their photos taken with them, the Paris 2024 mascots were the object of boundless adoration. To the point that the closing ceremony of the Paralympics put them in majesty: dressed in sequins or disguised as Léon Marchand, they set the dance floor on fire by waddling with the athletes.
Their real names are Oly and Para. The first is smaller than the second, who wears a racing blade on her right leg. Their personalities also differ. According to its designers, Oly measures each of its gestures, its effort to succeed. They – the Phryge is a non-gendered being – represents high-level sport. Para, on the other hand, is there to party and take all the fans with him. A godsend for Nolann, who, due to his large size, donned the costume of the Paralympic mascot, both for interventions in schools, from April, as well as during the torch relay and throughout the duration of the Games. Five months of jumping around and haranguing the crowd.
“The revolution through sport”
The mascots have “lived their best life”in the words of the Organizing Committee. We saw them everywhere: on a Jet-Ski in Tahiti, in the river brigade shuttle on the Seine, on a BMX at Concorde, brandishing a pistol on a shooting range, throwing a clapping at the Parc des Princes. We have seen them lifting a dumbbell, with a horse, on a scooter or in the company of rapper Snoop Dogg… and even on the sets of French and foreign television news, giving interviews without ever making their voices heard. The Phryges were among the great stars of the Games, sometimes more acclaimed than the medal-winning champions. They were the emblem that crystallized the joy of the spectators and exceeded all the hopes of the organizers.
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