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For other senses of the word "Fatso" than the topic of this article, see Fatso (disambiguation). Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat was an unofficial mascot of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics created by Sydney cartoonist Paul Newell with Roy and HG from the Australian Channel Seven sports/comedy television program The Dream with Roy and HG, which covered the event . Fatso was a spoof of the official IOC mascots of Syd, Ollie and Millie, whom Roy & HG referred to as Syd, Ollie and Dickhead . He was also referred to as "the battlers' prince" and proved to be more popular among Australian fans (and some visitors who viewed the program) than the official mascots. Fatso appeared with Gold Medallists Michael Klim, Susie O'Neill, Grant Hackett and the Australian men's 4-by-100 meter relay team on the winners' dais, and consequently appears on official commemorative postage stamps. During the olympics the Australian Olympic Committee attempted to ban athletes appearing with Fatso to stop him from upstaging their official mascots. The impending public relations disaster forced the president of the AOC, John Coates, and the director general of the IOC, Francois Carrard, to distance their organisations from attempts to ban Fatso . At the end of the Olympics Fatso was auctioned for the Olympic Aid charity, and was sold for $80,450 to Seven Network executive chairman Kerry Stokes. Fasto is currently housed in a glass box in Kerry Stokes's North Sydney office. In keeping with Fatso's role as a protest against the commercialisation of Olympic mascots only two Fatso's were officially produced, one for use in the studio and the other for use in the athelete's village. A number of unofficial Fatso toys and memorabilia were sold by merchants without authorization from the producers of The Dream with Roy and HG. A statue of Fatso appears as part of an official Olympic memorial outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium.
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