Every four years arguable the biggest sporting event takes place. The Olympic games. It’s a spectacular showcase of sporting events, that on any other given day, the majority of us are not even interested in. Despite this fact, not only do we watch it, we enjoy it. But how much do we know about the event? We know that the modern Olympics began in 1896, that it has a lot of sports, and it’s very expensive. But what else? Oh, that’s right. We know about the flag. But how much do we know about the flag of the games? Well, now we are here to fill you in on Olympic flag facts.
Interesting Olympic flag facts
It may seem like a boring thing to want to learn about, but it has some hidden messages. As you know. The flag consists of five colored rings, all interlocking. Believe it or not, this is a symbol in itself. The five rings symbolize the coming together of the five continents, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Antarctica isn’t included because not many people live there, and it’s not really owned by any one country. But what about them being locked together?
By linking the rings together, it is a symbol of athletes from all of the continents of the world coming together. But that’s not the end of our Olympic flag facts. If you were wondering about the colors there is a deep meaning there too. The colors, blue, yellow, black, green and red are used because every nation on Earth has one of those colors in their national flag.
The flag itself hasn’t been present at every Olympics either. It was designed in 1913 by Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman who is regarded as the father of the modern Olympics. Even though the flag was designed in 1913, it wasn’t until the 1920 games that it was finally used, meaning that it had missed five Olympics.
The flag itself is protected by law in nearly every country. It has received this special protection to prevent exploitation of the flag and the Olympics symbol.
