Meet Petra – the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Mascot

Petra, the Barcelona 1992 mascot, is a girl who welcomed athletes and fans from around the world. She is best known for her positive, extroverted, independent, energetic and brave personality. Petra does not have arms, making her the first Paralympic mascot ever to have a visible physical disability. Petra played an important role at the Games, cheering on thousands of athletes who competed between 3-14 September 1992.

"Petra" Mascot Paralympic Games Barcelona 1992

Get to Know: The Designer and Symbolism

Petra was designed by Javier Mariscal, a Spanish designer and illustrator, who is also known for creating the Barcelona 1992 Olympic mascot Cobi and the EXPO 2000 mascot Twipsy. Mariscal is an expert in product and industrial design, and was selected to create the Olympic and Paralympic mascots following a design competition.

The design of Petra features Cubist art techniques, while the designer also said he was inspired by a drawing by his daughter that “worked perfectly and explained the concept” of creating a mascot with long legs and no arms.

Mariscal has hoped that Petra would leave a legacy in the host city in addition to showing his respect for Lorenza Böttner, a Chilean-German artist who underwent amputation of her arms as a child.

“After presenting the character of Petra, one day Lorenza Böttner came to the studio and said, ‘Hi, I’m Petra.’ I loved that moment. We then held a press conference to show how she went about her daily life,” the designer recalled.