This year’s Olympic Games has had a lot of golden moments so far, including American gymnast Simone Biles’ fantastic run, the introduction of Kayak Cross as a full-contact sport and the starring role this lifeguard played in one swim meet. However this weekend we were treated to the return of an Olympic icon: the tiny Toyota.
If you aren’t familiar with the tiny Toyota, then you are missing out. The remote control car is one of a fleet of minute machines that are used across various events for carrying stuff around the Olympic Park. The tradition goes back a good few years now, with London 2012 featuring a mini Mini, Rio 2016 employing a tiny truck and Toyotas taking on the ball boy responsibilities since Tokyo 2020.
The cars were back on display this weekend when the athletics events kicked off in Paris at the Stade de France. There, the cars are used to carry all kinds of equipment around the stadium. They are capable of transporting javelins after they’ve been thrown, have space for discuses and can even transport hammers. As Europsport explains:
Tiny cars have been in action at previous Olympics as well as other big events – most famously the rainbow Volkswagen used at Euro 2020, which became a fan favorite on Twitter, now X.
At the Olympics they are used as recovery robots – kind of mechanical ball-boys.
The miniature cars – which don’t even go up to most people’s knees – drive around the field used for athletics events transporting javelins, discuses and hammers after they have been thrown.
Volunteers (human volunteers, that is) are also involved, picking up the equipment that’s been thrown and putting them into the cars’ tiny storage units.
Why Toyotas though, and not something profoundly French like a mini Citroën Ami? Well that’s all to do with boring old sponsorship.
Toyota is an official Olympic partner, meaning that it provides a lot of the official vehicles that athletes and personnel will use to get around Paris during the games. This includes a fleet of EVs that are on hand to whisk participants from the Olympic Village to their events whenever they require.