Well, the official Paris 2024 mascot has been unveiled. And, it sure is a different take, as it is a 'living' embodiment of a traditional 'liberty' symbol from throughout French history...the Phrygian cap.

It certainly is French! And, the Phyrges are a "nod to the revolutionary spirit" Paris 2024 wants to install in the Games, according to the organizing committee's Tony Estanguet.

Of course, there is a colorful characterization story as well. From Paris 2024 regarding the Olympic Phryge: "Always thoughtful and an astute strategist, she embarks on adventures only after carefully weighing up all of the pros and cons. Just like the Olympic athletes, she knows the importance of measuring all the various parameters to achieve her goals."

Earlier thoughts that Paris 2024 might go in such a unique direction proved well-founded. The Olympic Phryge and Paralympic Phyrge join London 2012's Wenlock and Mandeville and Atlanta 1996's Izzy as departures from typical animal-based mascots.

​What do you think?

All the previous 13 Summer Olympics since Munich 1972 have had at least one official mascot, helping to market the Games through personality and fun, while bringing in additional revenue opportunities through licensed paraphernalia.

Albertville 1992 champion Viktor Petrenko in trouble with Ukrainian sports officials  after participation in a figure skating program in Russian.

Olympic karateka Stanislav Horuna is one of many Ukrainian athletes using the current World Games experience to give voice to the war situation at home.

Might Team Russian and Team Belarusian athletes miss Paris 2024?

How does rising Nordic combined athlete Silva Verbic stay motivated in the sport these days?

Olympic trampolinist Dominic Clarke set to join the cast of Cirque du Soleil.

Barcelona 1992 basketball 'Dream Team'-er Magic Johnson takes a Greek holiday that's noticed.

Superstar LeBron James emphatically wades into the discourse on fellow basketball-er Brittney Griner's prolonged detention in Russia.

Might we see Cameroon-born basketball star Joel Embiid on Team France at Paris 2024?

Tokyo 2020 3x3 basketball gold medalist Kelsey Plum wins (a small) WNBA All-Star Game MVP trophy.

BiathlonWorld: Get to know cross-country star-turned-biathlete Anamarija Lampic.

Beijing 2008 volleyball medalist Kim Blass is the victim of a random assault in Los Angeles. Update!

Olympian Alex Ferlazzo looks to deepen Australia's luge future...in the tropics.

Double Olympic champion Monica Abbott awarded the Order of the Golden Diamond for her service to the sport of softball.

Where are they now? Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim checks in with Seoul 1988 and multi-time tennis champion Steffi Graf.

So what's next for Wimbledon tennis champion Novak Djokovic?

What's the connection between Tokyo 2020 tennis medalist Aslan Karatsev and match-fixing?

Is Los Angeles 1984 gold medalist diver and Team China legend Zhou Jihong behind a shakeup at swimming's international federation?

Meet Icelandic veteran gymnast Agnes Suto...who can't retire just yet.

Not even a Major championship title will make Olympic golfer Cameron Smith cut his trademark mullet.

Can rising teenage star Keyshawn Strachan emulate fellow Caribbean stars Keshorn Walcott and Anderson Peters and make a mark in the javelin?

Olympics.com​: Who are 12 rising stars to watch at the World Athletics Championships?

Hussein Abdi Kahin: Four-time Olympic champion runner Mo Farah reveals a surprising truth about his immigration to the United Kingdom.

Count Dalilah Muhammad as ready for a marquee hurdles clash at the World Championships.

49-year-old Australian race walker Kelly Ruddick set to be the oldest ever female World Athletics Championships competitor.

More BBC: With an Olympic medal under her belt, middle-distance runner Laura Muir is even more motivated for success.

Does soon-to-be-retired sprinter Allyson Felix's legacy go beyond the track?

CBC Sports' Devin Heroux has a compelling feature on Team Canada's 800-meter runner Marco Arop, ready to make a mark for his family at the upcoming worlds.

Can Team Italy repeat its Tokyo 2020 4x100 meter relay success at the World Championships?

Team Cuba retention woes continue as javelin thrower Yiselena Ballar stays in Miami while en route to Eugene for the World Championships. (in Spanish)

Euros 2022: How did Team Spain become a contender in women's soccer?

Zoe Claessens and Pedro Benalcazar are two of the eight BMX cyclists training at the UCI World Cycling Center: UCI checks in our their progress.

Will fencer Cheung Ka-long and swimmer Siobhan Haughey win the Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards?

Australian Olympic swimming great Michael Klim reveals a severe auto-immune diagnosis that limits his leg functionality

Schweizer Illustrierte checks in with ski cross champion Ryan Regez and his three-month surfing vacation in southern California. (in German)

London 2012 boxing gold medalist Oleksandr Usyk talks returining to Ukraine and picking up weapons.

The schedule for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is here!

Canada's 'most decorated show jumper' Eric Lamaza announces an early retirement from compoetitive equestrianism in order to foucs on his health.

Gymnastics star Sunisa Lee is learning to work through her emotions as she transitions from Olympic success into college competition.

Can up-and-coming short track speed skating brothers Farrell, Niall, and Ethan Treacy help Team Great Britain overcome the retirement of Elise CHristie?

Another young golfer to watch is Kristyna Napoleaova, successfully switching to the sport in three years.

Team USA cross-country skier Jesse Diggins reflects on another historic season.

GQ talks with NBA legend and Atlanta 1996 gold medalist Shaquille O'Neal on diet, training, and more.

Pole vaulter EJ Obiena resolves his argument with the Philippine Athletic Track and Field Association.

Sprint hurdler Devon Allen still wants an NFL career, but first wants a global medal on the track.

Cal Sports Report checks in on Mykolas Alekna, young discus thrower with a late start in the event despite his legendary father.

iSeven-time (!) Olympian Olufunke Oshonaike "wants to support other women" in her post-table tennis career after Tokyo 2020.

The end of the Tokyo 2020 Games has thankfully provided me back some free time to catch-up on much-needed Olympic-related viewing and reading. These last few days, this has meant watching HBO's "100 Foot Wave" documentary series released last month.

But that passion and excitement from surfers about being Olympians might be a little dampened by the next Games' competition. In Paris 2024, the surfing events will be held in Tahiti, more than 9,000 miles away. (!) Tahiti, part of the French Republic via French Polynesia, beat out mainland French options such as Biarritz and Lacanau.

While Tahiti offers a perfect made-for-television surfing backdrop, and it's waves at Teahupo'O can be thrilling, I can't help but think the remoteness might detract from the athletes' sense of Olympism. How will those athletes and their families even feel a part of the Games so far from the Olympic Village, the other athletes, the other sports? Or, will it, for the athletes, feel like just another large tournament stop around the globe? Perhaps the usual rigid and limited qualification for the Games - and some Olympic bunting and procedure on site! - will help tilt the experience toward an Olympic feel.

Tahiti will represent the furthest distance an event is held from a host city, ever. The previous record was equestrian having been held in Stockholm during Melbourne 1956 due to quarantine concerns. Most recently, Tokyo 2020 held its marathon and race walking events almost 700 miles away in Sapporo. And typically, many team sports' games (particularly soccer) are held in multiple sites for scheduling convenience. Paris 2024 will also host sailing away from the Games' landlocked center, in Marseilles, almost 500 miles away.

Understood, the Games are massive, and finding venues for 30+ sports in one limited geographic location is tough. But, mostly, these decisions, have come after the Games were awarded to a specific host. I would have thought that the host city's ability to host all the planned events within a somewhat reasonable geography be  a condition of hosting...otherwise, should it not be called Japan 2020 and France 2024, for example?

Regardless, to Tahiti will go Paris 2024's surfing Olympians. Luckily, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 should offer prime local venues for the sport..and more opportunities for surfers to be better, fully, integrated as Olympians.

As Tokyo 2020 winds down in its final weekend, I'm struck by the impact of the new Olympic sports. Debuts of karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing came, along with the return of baseball & softball. All of them offered intense and diverse competition.

Unfortunately, only some of these new sports are set to appear at Paris 2024. Karate, baseball & softball are saying goodbye to the Olympic program. Or, rather, are being told goodbye.

The background: in the interest of keeping a lid on the sporting largess of the Olympic Games schedule, the International Olympic Committee has capped the number of sports at each Summer Games. While some sports - track & field, swimming, basketball, gymnastics, etc. - make up the 'core sports', each host city has the opportunity to add an additional sport or two to their own Games. Hence, Tokyo 2020 added national favorites baseball/softball and karate, along with sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.

But Paris 2024 has no interest in baseball/softball nor karate, so out they go after Tokyo, and in comes breaking(!) as a new sport.

Used to be, these 'one-off' sports were called demonstration sports. With that moniker, it was easily understood that a host was, well, demonstrating, a non-Olympic sport - Barcelona 1992 had basque pelota, for example - without any immediate implication that the sport, and its results, were 'officially Olympic'. But the IOC dropped the official 'demonstration' allowance after 1992.

The show in Tokyo has been great. For the uninitiated, the kata discipline has been a revelation. And, the kumite discipline certainly fits right along as an Olympic combat sport alongside boxing, taekwondo, judo, and wrestling.

​What's more, it's proven to be a global sport. 37 National Olympic Committees participated across eight events, with 20 earning at least one medal out the 32 available. That diversity matches taekwondo's, and outpaces in percentage judo's.

Wouldn't it feel right if new Olympic champions like France's Steven Da Costa, Bulgaria's Ivet Goranova, or Spain's Sandra Sanchez had the opportunity to defend their titles? Or if Turkey's Eray Samdan, Azerbaijan's Rafael Aghayev, or Egypt's Giana Farouk can move up to champion? Sure, there are world championships and World Games medals to conquer...but they seem a bit lesser now, no?

So here's a call...let's make the Games bigger. Open the umbrella to include more, deserving sports. Size of the Olympics' infrastructure and impact on a host is certainly a concern, but there may be solutions - reduce entries in other sports, or increase the competition window (the Tokyo Games already actually started before the Opening Ceremony)...or...something. It just isn't right pull an Olympic rug out from, well, Olympians.