Intro:

The Organising Committee for the 2016 Olympics launched the Games' mascots at a public school in Rio on Monday.

Script:

The official mascots of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games have made their first public appearance.

The Olympic mascot is a big yellow cat-like figure with elements of monkeys and birds. It was joined at this school in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood of Rio by the mascot for the Paralympics - a mopped-headed doll with leafy hair, meant to represent the vast diversity of vegetation in Brazil. Neither has a name yet, that will be decided by a public vote. For the Olympics it a choice of Oba, Tiba Tuque and Vinicius, for the Paralympics it is Eba, Esquindim or Tom.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Carlos Arthur Nuzman, Rio 2016 Organising Committee chairman:

"This represents the diversity of our plants and our animals. this represents the symbols of the country. And this diversity is what represents the most significant in our country. And this homage is represented by the youth. They are the most important legacy that we will have after the games."

As well as being fun, these are serious money-makers for the games, making upto a quarter of the 400 million dollars expected from merchandise sales.

Votes for the names can be cast on the organising committee's website and Twitter feed with the winners set to be annoucned on 14th December.