Lyo

Lyo
Name Lyo
Birth Year 2010
Type Lion
Owner 1st Youth Olympic Games 2010
Cause Sport, Event
Creator Cubix International
Status Retired

The name Lyo, short for “Lion of the Youth Olympics”, was the winning entry in a naming competition submitted by Sean Pang Yi Wei. Designed as an anthropomorphic lion with a striking red mane and a paw pad shaped like Singapore’s silhouette, Lyo symbolises the nation’s identity and the energetic spirit of youth. The official Olympics page provides a brief write-up on Lyo:

Lyo is a lion cub with a mane as fiery as his passion for life. A boundless bundle of energy, Lyo is always on the go, learning new things and playing sports. His favourite sport is football, and he dreams of someday winning an Olympic gold medal with the Young Lions – Singapore’s under-23 football team. Having lived in a concrete jungle all his life, Lyo is no stranger to people. He likes making friends from all over the world and learning about their different cultures. He is fun-loving and wants to inspire youths to keep fit and enjoy sports for life. Lyo truly has a lion’s heart.

Cubix International, the creative agency commissioned to create the mascots, initially sought to develop robot mascots, as a nod to Singapore’s status as a “technologically advanced country”. However, research on Olympic mascots prompted them to focus instead on animal mascots.

Early drafts of the YOG mascots (Source)

As with almost all other Olympic mascots, Lyo and Merly adorned many of YOG 2010 memorabilia, including plushies, debit cards and stamps.

Lyo and Merly in sports poses (Source)


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Mural at Fairmont Singapore (Source)


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