China-made Paris Olympics mascots fuel criticism in France

Mascots of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, left, and Paralympics Games, a Phrygian cap, pose during a preview in Saint Denis, outside Paris, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. The soft bright red cap, also known as a liberty cap, is an updated version of a conical hat worn in antiquity in places such as Persia, the Balkans, Thrace, Dacia and Phrygia, where the name originates, in modern day Turkey. It later became a symbol of the pursuit of liberty in the French Revolution and is still worn by the figure of Marianne, the national personification of France since that time. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

FILE - Mascots of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, right, and Paralympics Games, a Phrygian cap, jump during a preview in Saint Denis, outside Paris, on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. Izzy, the much-hated blob that represented the 1996 Atlanta Games has been supplanted by the mascot for the Paris Olympics — a Phrygian cap. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)