What do the five Olympic rings mean?

What do the five Olympic rings mean?

The five Olympic rings have been a symbol of the Olympics for as long as anyone can remember. It’s iconic and immediately upon seeing it, people know what it is. Olympians have it tattooed on them, T-shirts and hats have it stitched upon it and it’s on flags all over the world.

But how many of us really know what the rings stand for?

Before we explain what they mean, first we’ll tell you how they came to be. The rings first appeared in 1913 and were drawn by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. For those keeping count, the Olympics (as we know them) firs began in 1896.

The five rings are meant to symbolize the five regions of the world who participated in the Olympics. Those regions are:

• Africa
• Asia
• Australia
• The Americas
• Europe

The rings are are equal in size and interlinking in order to symbolize a unified world.

What do the colors of the Olympic rings mean?

The colors of the Olympic rings left to right are blue, yellow, black, green and red. Those colors, plus the traditional white background are often mistaken to symbolize countries. In fact, they are to represent the flags of countries who participated in the 1912 Olympic Games, when the symbol was created. How clever!