Ray the Ray, the official mascot of the 2016 European Aquatics Championships, has been introduced to the world. Taking place May 9th through May 22nd, the European Aquatics Championships—Euros for short—will be the largest event to take place at the London Aquatic Center since the Olympics in 2012. British Olympian and FINA World Championships gold medalist Tom Daley helped introduce Ray to the world from the London Aquatics Center yesterday.
Have you seen @TomDaley1994's new synchro partner?? Meet Ray the official #London2016 Euro Aquatics Champs mascot pic.twitter.com/wYEzxTucgr
— London 2016 (@Aquatics2016) May 3, 2016
Ray will bear the responsibility of cheering on upwards of 1,000 athletes while also providing entertainment for approximately 51,000 fans over the course of 14 days of competition. Though the swimming does not begin until May 16th, synchronized swimming and diving will begin on May 9th. Synchronized swimming will finish on the 13th, while diving will continue until the 15th. During this first week of competition there will be three sessions of competition per day, with both synchro and diving taking place simultaneously during the morning sessions of Tuesday, May 10th, Wednesday, May 11th, and Thursday, May 12th.
Courtesy: Facebook/LEN
After the pros head home to resume training for Rio, the masters will descend upon London for an additional 5 days of competition from May 25th to May 29th. At the conclusion of this segment of the competition Ray’s duties will finally be complete, and Ray will be allowed to pass along the proverbial torch of sportsmanship to the Rio mascots, Vinicius and Tom, as they prepare for the responsibility of the upcoming Olympic Games.
Personally I’m waiting for Ray to fall over and not be able to get up
Ray the ray? Coming from the Great™ nation that brought you Boaty McBoatface. We aren’t Great Britain for nothing, you know.
I can just imagine how it went down, too.
‘Something about water… wet…’ ‘Wet Wetson…’ ‘No.. we can do better… something about fish…’ ‘Fish.. uh.. fishing for.. um…’ ‘Scary the Shark.’ ‘Good, but I think we can do better’ ‘Something about teeth?’ ‘No something clever, but not too clever.. stupid-clever.’ ‘Don’t think too hard.’ ‘Ray the ray.’ ‘Genius.’