LORRI the LORIKEET: Mascot for GG2019

Lor­ri the Lori­keet swooped into the Bris­bane Exhi­bi­tion grounds this week shak­ing her tail feath­ers to pro­mote the INAS Glob­al Games 2019 being held in Bris­bane from Octo­ber 12 – 19.

From her home on the city’s Mount Coot-tha, the bright­ly coloured rain­bow lori­keet spread her wings to join GG2019 Ambas­sadors, Box­er Jeff Horn and Par­a­lympian gold medal swim­mer Daniel Fox and sev­er­al Aus­tralian team ath­letes train­ing for the sport­ing spectacle.

Designed by a Bris­bane school­girl, Lor­ri epit­o­mis­es the excite­ment, colour, indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and inclu­siv­i­ty of the Glob­al Games as she proud­ly wel­comes ath­letes and their fam­i­ly and friends around the world to her city.

Whilst the INASGG2019 Mas­cot design com­pe­ti­tion attract­ed a very high vol­ume of entries, the judges felt that Lor­ri, with her Aus­tralian her­itage and her lar­rikin spir­it, best per­son­i­fied the wel­com­ing spir­it of Bris­bane and Australia.

When asked about her inspi­ra­tion the artist said, ​“I chose the lori­keet as a beau­ti­ful sym­bol of Aus­tralian wildlife. Fur­ther research­ing, I dis­cov­ered that lori­keets hang upside down and duck and weave like acro­bats. I thought this would make a suit­able con­nec­tion to the INAS Glob­al Games as it is an ath­let­ic sports event that includes a vari­ety of sports and gets to cel­e­brate the diverse, inspir­ing athletes.”

“We have a flow­er­ing gum in our front gar­den and I often watched the lori­keets’ com­i­cal and play­ful behav­iour, so I also thought it would be suit­able to have a mas­cot who dis­plays these fun, colour­ful attrib­ut­es,” she added.

At the offi­cial Lor­ri launch, the Lord May­or of Bris­bane, Coun­cil­lor Adri­an Schrin­ner, was delight­ed to intro­duce ​‘Lor­ri’ as the mas­cot for the Games say­ing Lor­ri had a very impor­tant role to play in wel­com­ing ath­letes, friends and fam­i­ly to the city and the event.

INAS Glob­al Games 2019CEO, Robyn Smith added, ​“We are very proud to be the host city for the INAS Glob­al Games 2019, an event that epit­o­mis­es inclu­siv­i­ty and cel­e­brates the incred­i­ble tal­ent of ath­letes from all over the world with an intel­lec­tu­al impairment.”

GG2019 Ambas­sador and world cham­pi­on Box­er, Jeff Horn said the Games will be a great cel­e­bra­tion of world-class ath­letes com­pet­ing for their coun­tries and enjoy­ing their sport at the very top lev­el in a friend­ly and inclu­sive environment.

“And hav­ing a cheeky rain­bow lori­keet as a mas­cot who loves a good chat­ter is a great way to spread the word about GG2019 and encour­age the com­mu­ni­ty to get on board and enjoy a tru­ly world-class sport­ing event this Octo­ber,” Mr Horn said.

The INAS Glob­al Games is a world-class sport­ing event with 1,000 elite ath­letes with an intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment, com­ing to Bris­bane from 12 – 19 Octo­ber .They will be going for gold and the glo­ry of com­pet­ing for their coun­try against elite ath­letes from up to 80 coun­tries in 10 sports at key venues across the city includ­ing the Queens­land Ten­nis Cen­tre, Slee­man Sports Cen­tre and the Anna Mear­es Velodrome.

Lor­ri now has her own page on the INAS Glob­al Games web­site. To learn more about her, go to: https://​www​.inas​glob​al​games​.org/​m​ascot