リオデジャネイロ・オリンピックの閉会式が8月21日（現地時間）に行われ、安倍晋三首相が人気ゲームのキャラクター「スーパーマリオ」にコスプレして登場、「2020年東京オリンピックは見逃せない」などと海外でも話題となっている。
また、安倍マリオや東京大会を紹介する映像を見た海外のネットユーザーからは、「東京オリンピックのキャラクターはマリオに決まったのではないか」との推測や、「東京大会（のマスコット）は見知らぬキャラクターより知っているキャラクターがいい」という要望など、様々な意見が上がっている。
AP通信のダグ・フェインバーグ記者は、「スーパーマリオ、ただ出てきただけだよね？ それとも、2020年大会のキャラクターになるの？」などとツイート。
アメリカのナショナル・パブリック・ラジオのジェシカ・テイラー氏は「ハローキティーが、2020年東京オリンピックのマスコットになったと言ってほしい」などと投稿した。
紹介映像に著名なキャラクターが登場したことで、「2020年の東京大会に新しいマスコットは必要ない。マリオを使えばいい」という声や、「ポケモンを使って」「ゴジラになったらクール」「初音ミク希望」などの意見も出ている。
リオ閉会式でのパフォーマンスによって、日本のアニメ文化がより世界に知られることになったが、東京大会への期待も高まった。「今から楽しみだ」といった声も数多く上がっている。
「東京のマスコットはかわいすぎるものになると賭けます」
「東京のマスコットには大きく期待している」
「リオのビニシウスとロンドのウェンロックも持っているけど、東京のほうがいいに違いない！」
なお、オリンピックの各大会のマスコットは国際オリンピック委員会（IOC）と関連組織によって、知的財産の管理が行われている。東京大会のマスコットキャラは、まだ制作方針や選定方針が決定していないが、2017年頃に決定する予定だという。
▼画像集が開きます▼
オリンピックのマスコットたち
スノーレッツ (スッキー、ノッキー、レッキー、ツッキー）（1998年長野）(01 of24)
Undated: The Official Mascot of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games for editorial use only. \\ Mandatory Credit: Allsport UK /Allsport (credit:Getty Images via Getty Images)
ヴァルディ（1972年ミュンヘン）(02 of24)
First Appearance: 1972 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Munich, Germany\n\nFun Fact: A popular breed of dog in Germany, Daschshunds are one of the country\'s many symbols, making this dog a no-brainer for the Munich Games. Also worth noting is that Waldi is the first official mascot of the Olympics and represents the desired traits of an athlete: resistance, tenacity and agility. (credit:Youtube )
スノーマン（1976年インスブルック）(03 of24)
First Appearance: 1976 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Innsbruck, Austria \n\nFun Fact: Schneemann goes down in history as the first official Winter Olympic mascot and represents simplicity in the games -- which makes sense since it\'s a mascot made of three balls of snow, two lumps of coal, one carrot and a hat. And no, there\'s probably no family relationship to Frosty the Snowman. (credit:Wikimedia)
アミーク（1976年モントリオール）(04 of24)
First Appearance: 1976 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Montreal, Canada\n\nFun Fact: 1976 marked Canada\'s first time hosting the Summer Olympics and so it only made sense to select the country\'s national animal as the game\'s mascot. (credit:The Canadian Press)
ロニ（1980年レークプラシッド）(05 of24)
First Appearance: 1980 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Lake Placid, USA\n\nFun Fact: As far as Olympic mascots go, Roni would have to be a silver medalist. Why? Well, poor Roni wasn\'t the first choice for a mascot during the 1980 Winter Games. The original plan was to use Rocky, an actual live raccoon as a representative of the Games but Rocky died before the games began. Instead, graphic designer Donald Moss drew up Roni who is named after Lake Placid\'s Adirondack Mountains. (credit:Youtube)
ミーシャ（1980年モスクワ）(06 of24)
First Appearance: 1980 Summer Games\n\nDebuted In: Moscow, Russia\n\nFun Fact: Misha\'s full name is actually Mikhail Potapych Toptygin and was created by Victor Chizhikov, a children\'s book illustrator. The bear was also the national symbol of the now defunct Soviet Union. (credit:Wikimedia )
ブチコ（1984年サラエボ）(07 of24)
First Appearance: 1984 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina\n\nFun Fact: A wolf may seem like a strange choice for a mascot but given the fact that the alternatives were a snowball, a mountain goat, a chipmunk, a lamb, or a porcupine, a wolf probably seemed like the best of the bunch. Vucko was also a symbol of human\'s desire to befriend animals. (credit:farm8.staticflickr.com)
サム（1984年ロサンゼルス）(08 of24)
First Appearance: 1984 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Los Angeles, USA\n\nFun Fact: Ah yes, mascots don\'t get any more American than a giant Eagle. Sam also shares a common bond with famous animals such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse because all three were designed by Walt Disney. (credit:Getty Images)
ハウディ、ハイディ（1988年カルガリー）(09 of24)
First Appearance: 1988 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Calgary, Canada\n\nFun Fact: Hidy and Howdy are the first to break the tradition of single mascots by introducing the Olympics to a a brother-sister duo. They got their name in a contest sponsored by the Calgary Zoo which saw 7,000 submissions. They\'re also symbols of Western Canada\'s hospitality. (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
ホドリ、ホスニ（1988年ソウル）(10 of24)
First Appearance: 1988 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Seoul, Korea\n\nFun Fact: Much like the Winter Games, the 1988 Summer Olympics featured two mascots, Hodori And Hosuni. Both were tiger cubs but Hodori was the more liked of the two. The tigers were selected due to their heavy prominence in many Korean legends. (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
コビー（1992年バルセロナ）(11 of24)
First Appearance: 1992 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Barcelona, Spain\n\nFun Fact: After decades of soft, cuddly mascots, it was time for a change. Enter Cobi, the first official Olympic mascot designed in a cubist art style. The style was inspired by Picasso\'s interpretation of a masterpiece from Velázquez, Las Meninas. The change in art must have paid off because by the time the \'92 Summer games were done, Cobi appeared in three ad sponsorships, on numerous souvenirs and even had his own TV show. (credit:Flickr: dipfan)
マジーク（1992年アルベールビル）(12 of24)
First Appearance: 1992 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Albertville, France\n\nFun Fact: Snow imps are a thing? (credit:Youtube)
ハーコン、クリスティン（1994年リレハンメル）(13 of24)
First Appearance: 1994 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Lillehammer, Norway \n\nFun Fact: Håkon And Kristin were the first official human (read: non-animal/ magical/mystical) mascots. (credit:Wikimedia )
イジー（1996年アトランタ）(14 of24)
First Appearance: 1996 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Atlanta, USA\n\nFun Fact: If Håkon And Kristin were the first human mascots, then Izzy gets the award for the first... abstract mascot. Actually, Izzy is the first computer generated mascot to represent the host country -- a far cry from what CGI can do today-- but Izzy could shape shift and was the biggest departure from previous Olympic mascots. However, Izzy was poorly received, leading it to earn nicknames like \"The Sperm In Sneakers\" from many critics. (credit:Wikimedia )
オリー、シド、ミリー（2000年シドニー）(15 of24)
First Appearance: 2000 Summer Olympics \n\nDebuted In: Sydney, Australia \n\nFun Fact: Unless you\'re from Australia, there\'s a good chance you won\'t recognize most of these critters. That\'s because they\'re all native to the island continent. Syd, the platypus is short for \"Sydney\", while Olly, the Kookaburra, is short for \"Olympic\" and Millie, the Echidna, is short for \"millennium\". (credit:Youtube)
パウダー、カッパー、コール（2002年ソルトレイクシティ）(16 of24)
First Appearance: 2002 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Salt Lake City, USA\n\nFun Fact: They may look like a trio of cute, cuddly animals but Power, the snowshoe hare, Coal, the American black bear, and Copper, the coyote, all share a great deal of symbolism. For one, all three animals are native to the state of Utah. Secondly, each critter is a major character in the legends of local American Indians. Finally, each is named after a natural resource that is key to the State\'s economy. (credit:Flickr: ewen and donabel)
アティナ、フィボス（2004年アテネ）(17 of24)
First Appearance: 2004 Summer Olympics\n\n Debuted In: Athens, Greece\n\nFun Fact: They may not look like it, but these two mascots are actually based off of children. Designed to bridge the gap between Ancient Greece and the modern era, the two were modeled after traditional Greek dolls but modified to represent children in this day and age. Further adding to the duo\'s ancient roots are their names: Athena is named after the goddess of wisdom and Phevos, a play of Apollo, the god of light and music. \n (credit:Getty Images)
ネーヴェ、グリッツ（2006年トリノ）(18 of24)
First Appearance:2006 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Turin, Italy\n\nFun Fact: They may look like Gumby rip offs, but Neve and Gliz are actually the official mascot for Turin when it hosted the Winter Games. Neve was designed to reflect a human snowball, while Gliz is a human ice cube. (credit:Wikimedia)
福娃 (ベイベイ、ジンジン、フアンフアン、インイン、ニーニー)（2008年北京）(19 of24)
First Appearance: 2008 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: Beijing, China\n\nFun Fact: And the winner for the largest posse of mascots goes to the Fuwa! Fuwa roughly translates to \'good luck dolls\' which explains their cute, miniature design and each comes with their own name and meaning. Starting from the left, there\'s Beibei, The Fish; Jingjing, the Giant Panda; Huanhuan, the Olympic Flame; Yingying, the Tibetan Antelope and Nini, The Swallow. Each doll was designed to take on a colour of the Olympic rings while also representing a key Feng Shui element. (credit:Wikimedia )
ミーガ、クワッチ 、スミ（2010年バンクーバー）(20 of24)
First Appearance: 2010 Winter Olympics\n\nDebuted In:Vancouver, Canada\n\nFun Fact: The mascots for the 2010 Winter Games were inispired by a mix of Aboriginal folklore and Canadian culture. There\'s Quatchi, the sasquatch, a lover of hockey and dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie (the Toronto Maple Leafs could probably benefit from a guy like him in net). Then there\'s Miga, part killer whale, part Kermode spirit bear, but 100% devoted to snowboarding. Finally, there\'s Sumi, a smorgasbord of animals: an animal-guardian spirt who wears the hat of the orca whale, uses the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs with the legs of the black bear. (credit:Wikimedia)
ウェンロック（2012年ロンドン）(21 of24)
First Appearance: 2012 Summer Olympics\n\nDebuted In: London, England\n\nFun Fact: Wenlock isn\'t just any drop of steel. It\'s a drop of steel with a camera for an eye. The mascot gets its name by Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England -- the location of the first Olympian Games in 1850, organized by the Wenlock Olympian Society. (credit:The Canadian Press)
ホッキョクグマ、野うさぎ、ユキヒョウ（2014年ソチ）(22 of24)
Olympic Games mascots extinguish the Olympic flame in a small cauldron in the stadium, during the closing ceremony for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, February 23, 2014. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor (RUSSIA - Tags: OLYMPICS SPORT) (credit:Grigory Dukor / Reuters)
ビニシウス（2016年リオデジャネイロ）(23 of24)
2016 Rio Olympics - Athletics - Final - Men\'s 100m Final - Olympic Stadium - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 14/08/2016. Usain Bolt (JAM) of Jamaica celebrates with a mascot after winning the race REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. (credit:Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters)
スホラン（2018年平昌）(24 of24)
The mascots for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics \"Soohorang\" and \"Bandabi\" (R) are seen during their launching ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea, July 18, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji (credit:Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters)
【※】オリンピックの歴代マスコット画像集が表示されない場合は、こちらへ。