'A white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red. The rings made a belated debut at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The rings were to be used on flags and signage at the 1916 Games, but those games were canceled because of the ongoing World War. A year later, it became the official Olympic symbol. Coubertin used his ring design as the emblem of the IOC's 20th-anniversary celebration in 1914.

The congress agreed on proposals for a modern Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee was soon formalized and given the task of planning the 1896 Athens Games.Īfter the 1912 Stockholm Games-the first Games featuring athletes from all five inhabited parts of the world-a design of five interlocked rings, drawn and colored by hand, appeared at the top of a letter Coubertin sent to a colleague. In 1894, Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin-a French aristocrat and intellectual who had previously attempted to incorporate more physical education in schools-convened a congress in Paris with the goal of reviving the ancient Olympic Games (an idea Coubertin first introduced at a USFSA meeting in 1889). 'It represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time.'

Lord of the rings emblems