Håkon and Kristin are the official mascots of the 1994 Winter Olympics, which were held in Lillehammer, Norway in February 1994. The mascots are two happy Norwegian children, a boy and a girl, both dressed in Viking clothes. Although they wear medieval clothes referring to their historical roots, they are the children of today and express interests and visions of youth as environmental awareness. The mascots are created by Kari and Werner Grossman, from an idea of Javier Ramirez Campuzano.
Eight pairs of Norwegian children, each representing a region of the country, were selected from about 10,000 subscribers aged 10 to 11 years old to play the mascots.
Two venues of the 1994 Winter Olympics located side by side, had the same name as the Mascots: the Håkons Hall and Kristins Hall.
History
The mascots' names refer to historical figures from the thirteenth century whose fate is closely linked to Norway and the Lillehammer area: Håkon IV who was the king of Norway between 1217 and 1263 and Princess Kristin Sverrisdottir, his aunt. They lived in Norway during a time of a conflict between the Birkebeiner and Baglers. When Håkon Hakonson was a small child he had to escape Lillehammer through the mountains with his supporters due to threatening by the Baglers. The Princess of the Birkebeiner, Kristin Sverrisdottir, married meanwhile the chief of the Baglers Filippus Simonsson in the sake of peace between the two groups.