Quick Intro: Olympic Rings History

The Olympics rings history is a rich and fascinating one. The Olympic rings design was created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1912. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung had said that circles represented continuity and the human being. Coubertin thought this was a fitting representation of the modern day Olympics. The idea of interlocking the Olympic rings came from the French International Olympic Committee’s flag. They had used a symbol consisting of two interlocking circles to represent the French IOC. Coubertin choose to use one circle to symbolize a part of the participating world. The five circles of the Olympic rings are used to represent The Americas, Africa, Oceania, Asia and Europe.

It was once thought that each colored ring was used to represent a specific part of the world. This was never proven to be true. It is true that each country has one of their flag’s colored represented somewhere in the five interlocking Olympic rings.

With the outbreak of WWI in 1914 the Olympic rings would not make their official appearance at an Olympic games until the 1920 games held in Belgium. Since the Belgium games, the Olympic Rings have flown over every modern day Olympics games. The flag with the Olympic rings is presented to a host country at the end of the Olympic games. This ceremonial passing of the flag is called the Antwerp Ceremony. The next host city will display the Olympic rings over their city hall until the next Olympics.

There are a few rules that must be followed when reproducing the Olympic rings. The Olympic rings can officially be interlocking or solid. The rings may be either blue, yellow, black, green and red or white, grey, gold, silver or bronze. The Olympic Rings can never be put onto a black or dark colored background. Making sure that the Olympic ring designs stays uniform ensures people all over the world can recognize it.

References:

The Olympic Symbols