Side view of "Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" as he appears on top of a pole outside Sydney's Stadium Australia.

Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat was an unofficial mascot of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics created by Sydney cartoonist Paul Newell with Roy and HG from the Australian Channel Seven sports/comedy television program The Dream with Roy and HG, which covered the event.^[1][2] He took the form of a life-size stuffed toy wombat with a lazy, cheerful expression and comically pronounced rump, and usually appeared on The Dream broadcasts on Roy and HG's desk.

Fatso was a spoof of the official Olympic mascots Syd, Ollie and Millie, whom Roy & HG disparaged as "Syd, Ollie and Dickhead".^[3] He was nicknamed "the battlers' prince" and proved to be more popular among Australian fans (and some visitors who viewed the program) than the official mascots.^[4] Fatso appeared with Gold Medalists Susie O'Neill, Grant Hackett and the Australian men's 4×200 metre relay team on the winners' dais.^[1][2] He consequently appears on an official commemorative postage stamp of the Australian men's 4×200 metre relay team in the arms of Michael Klim (second from the right).^[5] During the Olympics the Australian Olympic Committee attempted to ban athletes appearing with Fatso to stop him upstaging their official mascots.^[2] The impending public relations disaster forced the president of the AOC, John Coates, and the director general of the IOC, Francois Carrard, to distance their organisations from these attempts.^[6][1]

At the end of the Olympics, Fatso was auctioned for the Olympic Aid charity, selling for AU$80,450 to Seven Network executive chairman Kerry Stokes. Fatso is currently housed in a glass box in Kerry Stokes's North Sydney office.^[6]

In keeping with Fatso's role as a protest against the commercialization of Olympic mascots,^[3] only two Fatsos were officially produced: one for use in the studio and the other for use in the athletes' village.^[1] A number of unofficial Fatso toys and memorabilia were sold by merchants without authorization from the producers of The Dream.^[7][8] A statue of Fatso appears as part of an official Olympic memorial outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium.^[6]

References

1. ↑ ^{a b c d}
2. ↑ ^{a b c}
3. ↑ ^{a b}
4. ↑
5. ↑
6. ↑ ^{a b c}
7. ↑ Fatso the Wombat Online: THE Unofficial Fatso Fanclub, Pandora Archive, National Library of Australia, archived 2000-11-20
8. ↑ Fatso the Wombat Online: THE Unofficial Fatso Fanclub Tee-Shirt order form, Pandora Archive, National Library of Australia, archived 2000-11-20

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