What is the significance of the Olympic rings?
What are some of the things that come to your mind when you hear the word “Olympics”? Athletes carrying their country’s flags during the grand opening ceremony, the podium with the national anthems being played while the medals are awarded and of course, the Olympic torch, right? But one thing that stands out is definitely the Olympic logo with the blue, black, red, yellow and green interlocked rings. Although the rings are more than a century old, the symbol they imply remains timeless. Read on to know about the significance of the iconic Olympic logo.
What do the five interlocked Olympic rings signify?
History tells us that rings or circles have mostly been used to symbolise an unbroken commitment. The most common example of this lies in marriage rings. Although this is an integrated meaning behind the Olympic rings, there are also a few more different reasons behind them. The logo was created by the founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the co-founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin in 1913. He designed the rings as a representation of the 5 continents which participate in the game, although the colours do not correspond to a certain continent. Moreover, according to the Rule 8 of the Olympic Charter, the Olympic symbol expresses the activity of the Olympic Movement as well as the meeting of athletes from around the world at the Olympic Games. Another subtle statement that the logo makes is about equality. The interlaced rings are of equal dimensions, thus representing the view that each of the five continents is equal at the Olympic Games.
What is the meaning behind the five colours of the rings?
The Olympic flag consists of a plain white background with five rings of different colours interlocked. The five rings represent the five participating continents in the world: Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa and America. These rings are blue, black, red, yellow and green. Pierre de Coubertin had an interesting thought process in choosing these colours for the logo. According to him, when he introduced the flag and logo in the year 1913, the flag of every single participating country in the Olympic Games could be reproduced using the colours in the symbol (remember, this includes the five colours of the ring plus the white background of the flag.) “The six colours thus combined reproduce those of all nations without exception,” Coubertin had explained. However, it is important to know that these colours do not represent the continents individually. Some people do believe in that theory, but there is absolutely no evidence or confirmation backing it. Although the logo was adopted in 1914, it was not seen until the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. To this day, Coubertin’s original design has been retained. However, slight modifications in the positioning of the lower rings have been made over the years.