Why colors of olympic rings

The IOC tweaked de Coubertin's original rings slightly and approved a new version of the rings in the year In the year the IOC Graphics Standards announced a description of how the official version of the Olympic Rings with space should be produced.

There are a total of seven official versions of Olympic Rings. While the full-colour version of de Coubertin symbolises the universality of Olympism, the monochrome version of the rings serves as an alternate to the full-coloured version.

The other versions includes — blue coloured rings against white background, yellow coloured rings against white background, black coloured rings against white background, green coloured rings against white background, red coloured rings against white background and white coloured rings against black background.

Significance of Olympic Rings. According to Pierre de Coubertin himself, the Olympic rings represent the universality and the spirit of Olympism. The IOC takes their rings very seriously, and the symbol is subject to very strict usage rules and graphic standards, including:. The area covered by the Olympic symbol the rings contained in an Olympic emblem e.

BY Matt Soniak. Coubertin explained his design in "A white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red This article originally appeared in The six colors can be combined in any number of ways to reproduce the flag of every country without exception.

Although Coubertin might not have had a specific color in mind for each continent his intention was that the five rings do represent the five continents: African, American, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The idea for the symbol came after the Olympic Games in Stockholm , Sweden when around 2, athletes representing 28 nations from all the continents competed for the first time since the modern Olympic Games were resurrected in Coubertin was trying to create symbolism of unity and universality of Olympism by making the rings equal in formation and interlacing.

It is meant to embody a unified international world of equals representing the core values of Olympism : excellence, friendship and respect. Also the meeting of athletes from around the world to compete for the sake of competing. With less than two weeks until the Tokyo Olympics commence, here is a quick crash course on the origins, meaning and history of the Olympic rings:. Pierre de Coubertin, a French historian and founder of the International Olympic Committee, created the rings in The iconic design and flag were adopted in , but they did not make their official Olympic debut until the Antwerp Games since the event scheduled to take place in Berlin, Germany, was canceled due to World War I.

The Olympic rings, which stand as the symbol for the Olympics as a whole, represent the activity of the Olympic Movement and the union of five continents and athletes from across the world at the global event.