how I tried to dress Phryge – Libération

2024-08-30 10:17:49

As a social networker, I am free from the obsession with the Olympics and the Olympic Games. After the opening ceremony on Wednesday August 28, with many emails, I tried to become one.

I don’t believe in love at first sight. And yet, it has something extra. I can’t say exactly what. His infectious smile? Or maybe your big eyes? His endearing awkwardness? Fryge defeated me. However, it came from far away. We all laughed at the official mascot of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games for months. And finally, we would like to meet you every morning.

The knowledge is gradual. At first, I found myself smiling when looking at photos of Phryga on social media. “Mooooh, so cute!” I told myself, without facing the truth. Then there was a confusion in a supermarket: I, not looking at the good stands dedicated to the Olympic Games, stopped my shopping by accident when I caught sight of a Phryge soft toy sold for about twenty coins Europe. I found myself holding it, looking at it, thinking how cute it would be in my library. But no, 20 euros for a Phryge of a few centimeters? I let him go, giving him one last tearful look: “For 5 euros less, you will be in my Shopping Cart.”

It was the evening of August 28, during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, that the charm finally worked. On television, I heard commentators say that the Phryges were playing 1,2,3 suns all together on stage. I rushed to my phone to find a video. I am sending it to my friends. To my parents. I looked again and again. I finally got it: “J’adoooooore les Phryges!!!”

Inspired by this new love, I decided that I must live fully. The game is almost over. I have never seen a large Phryga in the flesh and I don’t have the famous souvenir photo that fans and tourists fight over. I have a few days to get it. But that’s not all. I just don’t want to meet a Phryge. I want to be phryga.

I wrote to several Olympic email addresses. “(blablabla) So I’d like to dress up for a day (blablabla)”…

I am trying everything. Around me, I ask everyone I know who works in communications or events if they know anyone in the Games publishing industry. “Please, I really want to be Phryge!” Phew. A new notification. The press answered me. I am full of hope. But there is no. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you have to,” and wrote again the person who wrote my question.

Obviously, I’ll call in the next minute.

“Hello, thank you for your quick response. I would like to call you because I want to know what is wrong with my request?

In fact, the problem is that there isn’t “Only actors and actresses are authorized to wear the clothes of Phryge”. I insisted a little, but he ate it “president” which cannot be changed. I spoke up with a broken heart. My colleagues consoled me. And advised me to try my luck one last time.

I called back and I presented my best argument, as if I had come straight from the Actors Studio. But the second problem: you must have signed the employment contract to be “wise to do Phryge”. A severe reaction. “What if I volunteer Phryge?” Neither.

“Like Mickey at Disneyland”

The problem is that those who manage the art of Phryge do not expect such success. No one should see what is hidden under the blue-eyed red face. But now, with the Buzz media, it is important to find an artist to act as a spokesperson: Laura Charles, 28, who helps imagine the choreography and look at the language of the mascot. I was asked to meet him with a whole bunch of other reporters at the same time. “Because there are tons of questions around Phryge”.

I admit, now that I think I’m Phryge, I have a hard time letting the thought go. I start again: “I will let you think and come back to me, don’t hesitate to tell me if you have any questions to better understand what I would like to do as Phryge.”

No, really, that’s impossible. In the end, by revealing too much behind the scenes of this logo, they explained to me that it would be dangerous “Break the Myths, like Mickey in Disneyland”. I would have tried everything, but Phryge would not.