Say Hello to ‘UGGI’!

GRANADA – Today, 6 February, the Granada 2015 Organising Committee officially presented its mascot for the 27^th Winter Universiade at the Mirador de San Nicolas.

The ceremony was attended by the President of the Universiade, José Torres Hurtado; the vice-rector of the university, Maria Elena Martín-Vivaldi; the delegate of Education, Culture and Sport of the Junta de Andalucía, Ana Gamez; Councilman for sport for the City of Granada, Antonio Granados; director of the sports programme of Cetursa Sierra Nevada, María José Rein; the vice-dean of Institutional relations of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Ana García López and the new manager of Granada 2015, Ignacio Pipó.

The mascot is a mountain goat which listens to the name ‘Uggi’ and was the winning proposal of a design competition launched last October. The competition featured the collaboration of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Granada and over 50 proposals from different parts of Spain were received. The winning mascot was created by the Basque designer Paul Uncetabarrenechea (Vitoria). “The mountain goat transmits values like strength, skill, balance and nobility, all linked to sport”, Uncetabarrenechea explained. “I used asymmetry for the eyes and horns to make it a friendlier creature.” The chest bears the five-star logo of Granada 2015. The mascot’s name is easy to pronounce and to remember: ‘UGGI’. It’s an acronym formed by the initials of ‘Universiade’, ‘Granada’ and ‘invierno’ (Spanish for winter).

“One of the criteria to choose the mascot was the fact that it can be easily transformed into a three-dimensional character so it can be present on the ice or in the snow during the games”, José Torres Hurtado added. “The mascot is a well chosen ambassador of our Sierra Nevada.”

(Source: Granada 2015)