Mascots have long been a very important element for Winter Olympic Games. Since the very first Olympic mascot was designed for the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France, mascots have become symbols for successive Winter Olympic Games, a tradition that has constantly captured the public's attention.
The 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway were the first to design mascots in a human form, expressing young people's interest in and longing for the Winter Olympic Games. The 1994 Winter Olympic Games were also the first time that mascots in a human form had been adopted for the Games.
The two mascots, which took the form of children, were designed in reference to figures from Norwegian fairy tales, with Haakon being the boy and Kristin the girl. In Norwegian fairy tales, they were considered the prince and princess who had helped to restore peace for Norway during the Middle Ages.