The medal moment, as it is intended to be the case with athletes, is to be the absolute quintessence of a Games: to be on a podium, to be presented with an anthem, with a heavy disc in a hand. That ritual has been softened as an add-on at the 2026 Winter Olympics, with medalists also being given a commemorative plush mascot, a fact that can appear out of place when a team has just lost.
The promotional event in Milano Cortina, based on a gift, features Tina the Stoat, one of the official mascots of the event. This is not an accident: the plush is presented sweetly with the medal, and the event becomes not only a milestone in the sporting career, but also a segment of the Games branding that will be taken home in the kit bags of the athletes and in social media profiles.
Tina is given a sibling mascot, Milo, and the two are then escorted with a small cast of creatures referred to as “the Flo.” The team is meant to be indivisible, “always [leaving] their friends [Tina and Milo],” a phrase that has been employed in official descriptions of Games. This is furthered in the two events also: Olympians are given a Tina plush and a matching Flo, and Paralympians are given a Milo plush and a matching Flo. It is a nice, symbolic means of providing every podium finisher with something that is similar, recognisable, and linked to the appearance of these Games.
Nevertheless, the decision to use the animal is questionable due to the fact that a stoat is not a headline mascot.
Practically it is effective because the stoat is aesthetically flexible. A stoat is a small mammal belonging to the weasel family; one of its most prominent characteristics is seasonal camouflage, insomuch as in winter it changes to white and in summer to brown. The given natural shift recalls the palette of the mascots Tina resembles the winter coat, Milo the warmer-season colouring, and tells the design staff that they have an inbuilt narrative that does not require them to write one.
The stoat also defines the mascots within the broader geography of winter sport. Stoats belong to Eurasia and north of North America, and their smaller size is associated with them: males measure about 7.4 to 12.8 inches, females about 6.7 to 10.6 inches. Not only is the history of the animal European, but it also had an introduction to New Zealand during the 19 th century to destroy rabbits, which was later associated with detrimental effects on native bird populations. That setting is not present in the ceremony, but it is a part of the decision to use a real and familiar species instead of a myth.
The luxurious tradition of Milan Cortina also belongs to a new trend in Olympics: the medal is not the only item that is supposed to survive after the podium.
During the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, boxed official poster was presented to all medalists as an extra reminder, and they also had plush Games mascot. Previous Winter Games had taken similar decisions. PyeongChong 2018 has offered medalists a plush tiger, which is the Soohorang mascot, as part of a break with tradition in using flowers, which organisers said were unsustainable, the first Olympic mascot was the 1968 Winter Games held in Grenoble.
The difference in 2026 is the emotional contrast that the plush will be able to generate. To the gold medalists, it sounds like a memento. To former non-believers, who have recently fallen out of the prime position, it may appear as a clumsy fulcrum in an event that still feels fresh and medicalized a lesson that even when athletes are still digesting the actual event, the ceremonies are designed to be shot on film.
