Four mascots supported the Nagano Games: the snowy owls Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki. The NAOC selected the four names from over 47,000 proposals submitted by the population. If you string the first two letters of these four names together, you get the word “Snowlets” – the official name of the four figures. The meaning of the word “Snow-lets” can be roughly divided: “snow” as a synonym for winter, winter sports and Olympic Winter Games, and “lets” in the sense of “let’s do it” or “let’s take part at the Olympic Games”. In addition, “owlet” means “young owl”. The number 4 for the number of mascots was also wisely chosen: Sukki (fire), Nokki (air), Lekki (earth) and Tsukki (water) represent the four basic elements as well as the four years that make up an Olympiad. In Greek mythology, the owl is the companion of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.