The Five Rings

Do you know what the five rings and the five different colors of the rings represent?  Well …..

Most accounts point to the founder of the modern Olympic Movement, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, as having adopted the Olympic rings. Coubertin got the idea from a similar design he saw on an artifact in ancient Greece in 1913. The Olympic rings comprise of five colors, from left to right-blue, yellow, black, green and red-which represent the five major regions of the world-Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Oceania, in no particular order.

At least one of these five colors is to be found in the national flag of every country in the world. It is worth noting that Pierre de Coubertin never wrote nor said that the ring colors were associated with the different continents. The Olympic Flag made its debut during the 1920 Olympic Games held in Antwerp, Belgium. As a culture of the global games, each time the Olympics come to an end the mayor of the host city presents it to the mayor of the host city to hold the games next. It is then rested at the town hall of the next host city for the four years prior to the opening of the Olympics Games.

Here’s to a great Olympic Games!  May there be joy, may there be love and, above all, may there be peace.