Roni
Name
The name Roni was chosen by Lake Placid school children. It comes from the word “racoon” in Iroquoian, the language of the native people from the region of the State of New York and Lake Placid.
Description
The racoon is a familiar animal from the mountainous region of the Adirondacks where Lake Placid is situated. The racoon's facial features and the black and white mask around his eyes are a nod to the sunglasses and hat worn by some of the competitors. The five colours of the Olympic rings can be found on some versions of Roni.
Creator
Don Moss, Capital Sports
Did you know?
To begin with, Lake Placid had a living mascot, a racoon called Rocky. After this death, just before the Games started, he was replaced by Roni.
Roni was available in several versions, practising different sports. This was a first in the history of Olympic mascots.
Find out more about the Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Games on olympic.org
