What is today's Doodle? How Google is marking the Paralympics with a wheelchair tennis graphic

Google created unique Doodles throughout the Olympics and the Paralympics is proving to be no different, with a fresh animation greeting users of the search engine.

This time around, Google is honouring Paralympic athletes with a Doodle depicting birds in wheelchairs playing a game of tennis, using a spatula, a spoon, and an acorn.

The entire animation is framed with leaves and set in a park, as if the birds are hosting their own mini-Paralympics somewhere.

The animation shows the two birds bouncing the acorn back and forth between them, before losing control and bonking the referee on the head with it.

Since the beginning of the Paris Olympics 2024, several editions of Google Doodle have honoured various sports, including surfing, artistic gymnastics, and football.

It could be that the Paralympics will see various other sports featured. The sporting event will run until September 8, so there’s plenty more time for Google to get creative with cutesy recreations of other major Paralympic sports.

What is a Google Doodle?

Doodles usually honour a person, cultural event, or a special day with a graphic on the homepage in place of the classic Google logo.

Usually, Google only shows graphics in countries relevant to the person or event it is celebrating; however, all users will be seeing the Olympics-themed doodles throughout the Games.

Google tends to use its own in-house animator for the Doodles, which have been running for 25 years.

Funnily enough, the very first Doodle was published in 1998, so Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin could let people know they would be out of office for Burning Man.

The first international Doodle was published to celebrate Bastille Day in France, taking place in 2000 and also being the first time that a Doodle was used to celebrate cultural events, rather than in-jokes from Google.