Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat was an unofficial mascot of the 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. Fatso is a wombat with a lazy, cheerful expression and comically pronounced rump. He usually appeared on The Dream broadcasts, sometimes as a life-size stuffed toy on Roy and HG's desk.
Fatso was a spoof of the official Olympic mascots Olly, Millie, and Syd, whom Roy & HG disparaged as "Syd, Ollie & Dickhead". He was nicknamed "the battlers' prince" and proved to be more popular among Australian fans of the duo (and some visitors who viewed the program) than the official mascots. Fatso appeared with gold medalists Susie O'Neill, Grant Hackett and the Australian men's 4×200-metre relay team on the winners' dais. During the Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee attempted to ban athletes appearing with Fatso to stop him upstaging their official mascots.
In keeping with Fatso's role as a protest against the commercialisation of Olympic mascots,
A statue of Fatso appeared as part of an official Olympic memorial outside the Sydney Olympic Stadium, commemorating the volunteers who worked during the Olympics. The stolen statue was replaced in 2020.
See also
- List of Olympic mascots
- List of Australian sporting mascots