What does each Olympic ring mean. Olympic rings meaning of each ring
However, you are most likely interested in who came up with the logo " five olympic rings "? And what does she really represent? There are two versions that try to shed light on this mystery.
First version. This version was recognized even in the Olympic Charter. The fact is that the Olympic rings were directly involved in the origin of the symbol. Pierre de Coubertin French citizen. It was his developments that served as the prototype of the emblem, which was later depicted on the Olympic flag. This happened two years before the Belgian Olympic Games - in 1912.
These rings passing through one another form two rows. The bottom row consists of green and yellow rings, and the top row of red, black and blue.
The five rings represent the five parts of the world, each with a specific color. The green color represents the flowering and lush vegetation of the continent of Australia, the yellow is given to Asia, because people there have yellow skin, and the earth is covered with sand in many areas, the red color went to America, because the natives there have skin with a reddish tint, black was given to Africa, because there live savages with skin the color of ebony, Blue colour designates Europe, because people there consider themselves superior to others.
You need to understand that the two American continents were united into one continent, and no one began to take into account the Arctic and Antarctica, due to the lack of people there.
The emblem of five rings woven into one whole represents the connection of five continents for the sake of sports competitions on a planetary scale, readiness for fair but serious competition, a common sports spirit
Read more: The meaning of the Pacific symbol
Second version. This version is not so popular, but it is still too early to dismiss it. Some researchers claim that the symbol of the five rings for the Olympic Games was invented by himself " great and terrible"Psychologist Carl Jung. He was well versed in Chinese philosophy, in which the sign of the ring meant greatness, vitality and some mystical energy. The ancient Chinese believed that our universe is controlled by several energies: metal, fire, earth, wood and water. Carl Jung imbued with the spirit of ancient mystical Chinese philosophy, he decided to express these five energies on paper, while uniting them. So he drew the symbol that we now know as the emblem of the Olympic Games. Moreover, a psychologist in 1912 explained how he himself understood these sports competitions. Today they are called - pentathlon. He was convinced that an Olympic athlete needs to be versatile and master each of the five types of competition - shooting, jumping, swimming, running and fencing.
At the same time, shooting corresponded to black, jumping - green, swimming - blue, running - yellow, fencing - red. Such an interpretation of the symbol focused on the achievements and abilities of a certain athlete worthy of being considered an Olympic champion, and not on the planetary scale of sports
Read more: The meaning of the Dove of Peace symbol
The use of the emblem of the Olympic rings is subject to strict regulation. It is forbidden to move the rings from row to row, change colors. Permanent control over compliance with the regulations is carried out by the International Olympic Committee.
Symbols of the Olympic Games video
Agree, we are accustomed to taking some events for granted, not really thinking about either the history of their occurrence or their characteristic features.
Perhaps, the Olympics should be attributed to such events on a global scale. But every time sports competitions of this kind attract the attention of not even hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of devoted sports fans around the world.
Incredibly, they have been held for 118 years, and now both the fire and the rings of the Olympic Games are already habitually perceived.
What do these symbols mean and why exactly did they become iconic? Perhaps not every modern person can answer this question.
Section 1. Olympics today
In general, the Olympics should be understood as an international sporting event in which thousands of athletes from different countries compete.
There are summer and winter events taking place alternately every two years. That is, purely theoretically, it can be calculated that events of such a plan are arranged only in even years. And if in 2014 the Olympics were winter, then the next, already summer, will be held in 2016. By the way, by decision of a special commission, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) was entrusted to host it.
Section 2. Five rings of the Olympic Games as the main symbol of the competition
A white flag with characteristic symbols ... At a certain moment, as if by magic, it appears everywhere: on buildings, on sports and casual clothes, interior items and even on children's toys.
The snow-white background symbolizes And this is far from accidental, because for a long time, during the Olympics, hostilities and conflicts ceased and continue to cease all over the planet.
The number and games placed on the flag are also very well thought out. They are colored yellow, blue, black, red and green.
First of all, we note that the rings of the Olympic Games symbolize the five continents of the planet: America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Why is this so, because the globe consists of six? The fact is that the Antarctic and the Arctic, due to their uninhabited nature, were not taken into account when developing the symbol.
Ah, those Olympic rings! What they mean was invented a little later. Today, even schoolchildren can talk about the fact that each part of the world is correlated with its own specific color. Blue corresponds to Europe, black to Africa, red to America, yellow to Asia, and green to Oceania.
Section 3. The emblem of the Olympic Games: rings and the history of their occurrence
This symbolic sign was developed in 1912 by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. They adopted the emblem in 1914, although it should be noted that it made its debut much later, only in 1920, at the Olympics in Belgium. It was originally planned that the world would see a flag decorated with a new symbol in 1916, but the First World War prevented the main
It is hardly worth mentioning that immediately after their appearance, the rings fell in love and became essential attribute Olympics. In later years, they were used to create various logos associated with the Games.
Section 4. Has the symbol been modernized?
Oddly enough, but yes. And the Olympic rings underwent the biggest changes at the 1936 Olympics, held in the German capital Berlin.
Firstly, the rings were arranged not as usual in two rows, but in one. Their arrangement is somewhat similar to the traditional one due to the fact that the first, third and fifth of them were raised compared to the second and fourth.
Secondly, both the rings and the eagle holding them were made in black and white. In subsequent years, the monochrome version of the Olympic Games logo was used quite often, but the location was no longer changed.
In 1960, in Italy, the artists of the games - the rings - made it voluminous. It was performed in gray color. The rings were located under the Roman she-wolf, which, according to legend, nursed Romulus and Remus, who founded Rome. By the way, it was in that year that new tradition- hang medals around the neck of athletes.
The Mexicans, who hosted the Games in 1968, approached the creation of the Olympic logo no less creatively. This time, as a symbol of the Olympic Games, the rings were inscribed in the inscription "Mexico-68" and highlighted in color. The lower rings were part of the number 68.
Section 5. The unopened ring of the Sochi Olympics
But not everything is as smooth as it might seem at first glance. The rings of the Olympic Games, which means the five inhabited continents of the planet, have not always been successful. Something was condemned, something was welcomed, and there was something that went down in history.
A small technical incident with the rings occurred at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi (Russia).
According to the plan, during the show, large snowflakes hanging over the Fisht stadium were to be transformed into the Olympic rings. But only four were revealed. One ring remained hanging like a snowflake.
However, the Russian viewers did not see this hitch, since the organizers realized a little earlier than the rest what was happening, and they broadcast footage from the rehearsal.
During the closing of the Olympic Games, this incident with an unopened ring was played ironically. At the beginning of the ceremony, the participants of the show formed a composition with five rings and one snowflake, which quickly opened up in a few seconds.
Section 6. Other symbols of the Olympics
It should be noted that, in addition to the official flag and rings, there are also other symbols of the Olympics.
- Fire. The tradition of lighting a torch was taken by Coubertin in 1912 from the ancient Greeks. The Olympic flame is a symbol of purity, struggle for victory and self-improvement. It was first lit in 1928. The relay race to pass the torch to the city where the Game is held began in 1936.
- Medals. For the first place, the athlete is awarded a gold medal, for the second - a silver, for the third - a bronze. They are awarded to the winners after the competition at a special ceremony.
- Motto"Citius, Altius, Fortius" can be translated into Russian as "Faster, higher, stronger." For the first time these words were said by the priest Henri Martin Didon during the opening sports competitions in college. It seemed to Coubertin that this phrase perfectly reflects the essence of the Olympic Games.
- Oath, according to which the participants of the Games must respect and comply with the established rules. Its text was written by Pierre de Coubertin and was first heard in 1920.
- Olympic principle was also defined by Pierre de Coubertin in 1896. He says that in the Olympic Games, as in life, the main thing is not victory, but participation.
- Games Opening Ceremony- the most solemn part. It hosts a parade of athletes from all countries participating in the competition. The team of Greece goes first, then the teams of the countries according to the alphabet, and the team of the country organizing the Games comes last.
Section 7. Interesting facts about the Olympic Games
According to the decree, gold medals of pure gold in the form of a coating must contain at least 6 grams.
On the logos of the Olympic Games, the year is usually written with four or two digits (Athens 2004 or Barcelona 92). In the entire history of the Games, only once in 1960 in Rome was the year written with five letters (MCMLX).
During the Great Depression in 1932, the Brazilian government did not find the money to send its delegation to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. As a result, 82 Brazilian athletes were put on a ship with coffee in order to bring them to America with the proceeds. When the ship arrived at the port of San Pedro, its leaders demanded that one dollar be paid for each person who disembarked. Only those who had a chance to receive a medal were let down from the ship. He then went to San Francisco to sell coffee and was able to land a few more athletes, but 15 athletes returned to Brazil.
In 1956, the Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne, which was unable to host some sports. Australian quarantine regulations prohibited the importation of horses, and equestrian competitions had to be held in Stockholm.
Section 8. Looking to the Future
As previously reported, the next Olympic Games will be held in Brazil, in the world famous holiday city of Rio de Janeiro.
This capital of carnivals can not only surprise. It literally amazes every traveler, which means there is no doubt that the 2016 Olympics will be another amazing event.
Whether the rings of the Olympic Games, which means the unity of the planet, will undergo changes is still unknown, since such details are usually a secret part of the opening ceremony.
- blue - Europe;
- black - Africa;
- red - America;
- yellow - Asia;
- green - Australia.
It's a shame, of course, that no one represents Antarctica, so there would be 6 rings on the Olympic flag and one of them would be white. And so there are only 5 rings - blue, yellow, black, green and red. The blue ring symbolizes Europe, the yellow ring symbolizes Asia, the black ring symbolizes Africa, and the red ring symbolizes North and South America.
There are several versions explaining the meaning of the colors of the Olympic rings.
First version the most common. She says that the creator of the Olympic rings, Pierre de Coubertin, with the help of multi-colored rings, characterized each of the five parts of the color.
The blue ring represents Europe, black ring- Africa, red - America, yellow - Asia, and the green ring - Australia.
That is, the symbol in the form of five interlaced rings denotes the unification / union of the five world continents.
By second version, the creator of the main Olympic symbol is the famous Swiss psychologist and philosopher Carl Gustav Jung. He decided to express the idea of Chinese mythology about the five elements of nature (water, earth, fire, wood and metal) in the form of rings, a symbol of power and greatness. And in 1912, Jung proposed the idea of pentathlon, the essence of which is that an Olympic athlete must master five sports - show jumping, fencing, shooting, running and swimming. Thus, the black ring symbolizes metal and shooting, the red ring - swordsmanship and fire, the yellow one - earth and running, the green one - tree and jumping.
By third version, which complements the first, the colors of the rings are all shades that contain the state flags of all countries of the world. Those. An athlete from any country in the world can participate in the Olympic Games.
Five multi-colored rings are familiar to us from the Olympics. The color of each ring is chosen for a reason, the colors represent a specific continent. And all the rings connected to each other are a union, a world.
ring blue color this is Europe
Africa is represented by a black ring,
America is red
yellow - Asia,
and the green ring symbolizes Australia.
Clearly like this
I don’t even remember where I learned this and when, but the Olympic rings, and as we know and see them, 5 pieces, mean five separate continents of the planet Earth.
Each ring is of a different color and is a symbol of one of the five continents where people live and inhabited countries are located, and all together means universal unification and peace. There are such different colors as:
Colors of the Olympic rings
yellow, blue, black, green, red;
and they match in the same order:
Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, America.
Part of the world called Europe is blue, some say it is blue.
Part of the world Asia, as you know, Asians have yellow skin, they got the yellow color of the ring on the flag.
The continent of Australia is green.
America - she was given a red ring.
Africa, where the skin color of the population is dark, is black.
In my opinion, everyone should know this, because the symbol of the five Olympic rings carries a deep meaning - equality of opportunity for everyone, for all races and continents, therefore all five continents of the Earth are represented on it. And each has its own color, as written above.
The Olympic rings as a symbol of the five continents (which were invented by Pierre de Coubertin) of the world have their own colors, which symbolize, according to the same definition of Pierre de Coubertin, the continents and their colors.
Blue color it Europe.
Yellow color expresses Asia.
Black color expresses Africa.
Green color expresses Australia.
Red color South And North America.
This is how the world associates the colors of the continents and, accordingly, the colors of the Olympic rings.
This symbol was invented by Pierre de Coubertin in 1913. There is no reliable information about what meaning he put into these colors, but it is generally accepted that the national colors of all countries are reflected in this symbol of the Olympic Games. Every country's flag has at least one of the five ring colors. Five continents - five colors - five rings. Blue - Europe, black - Africa, yellow - Asia, green - Australia, red - America. This symbol indicates that athletes from all over the world can take part in the games. The Olympic Games were aimed at maintaining the principles of equality, strengthening peace and improving relationships, and these principles were laid down in ancient Greece.
The five Olympic rings symbolize the five continents where the Olympic Games are held. And according to the colors, such a correspondence is accepted -
Yes, everything is simple here - for each inhabited continent (now there are five of them), taking part in the Olympics, a color has been assigned:
America - red;
Europe - blue;
Asia - yellow;
Australia - green;
Africa is black.
When they populate Antarctica, there will probably be a sixth ring white color.
Now, I wonder if Martians will take part in the Olympics, then what color will the ring be added to? Mars, after all, is also called the Red Planet, and red is busy.
Olympic rings have five colors: blue, yellow, black, green and red.
They represent five parts of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America.
These parts of the world are interconnected in rings.
The symbol of any Olympic Games is a sign - five intertwined colored rings.
This symbol was chosen for a reason, it carries the meaning and purpose of any Olympics - the establishment of friendly relations between peoples, countries and continents around the globe.
Each ring has its own meaning and represents a specific continent (continent).
Ring yellow color is a symbol of Asia.
The green ring is the symbol of Australia.
The red ring is the symbol of America.
The blue ring is the symbol of Europe.
The black ring is the symbol of Africa.
The red Olympic ring symbolizes the continent of America, the indigenous people of its red-skinned Indians. Black symbolizes Africa with blacks. Yellow represents the continent of Asia. Green refers to Australia, the Green continent. But why is Europe given the color blue?
According to one version, the psychologist Carl Jung, who is also considered in some circles to be its creator, is associated with the appearance of the Olympic symbols. Jung was well versed in Chinese philosophy, he knew that the ring in ancient cultures is a symbol of greatness and vitality. So he introduced the idea of five intertwined rings reflecting the five energies that are mentioned in Chinese philosophy: water, wood, fire, earth and metal.
Together with the symbols in 1912, the scientist introduced his own image of the modern pentathlon Olympic competitions. Any Olympian had to master each of his five events.
The first discipline is swimming - in the form of a blue ring, it also depicts the element of water and indicates the rhythm that holds the breath, allows you to move forward on the surface of the water, to leadership.
The green jumping ring is an image of a tree and a symbol of the rider's energy. He must have the ability to control not only his own energy, but also the energy of the horse.
The next discipline is fencing, and it is depicted by the fiery element in the form of a red ring. This discipline symbolizes flair. The success of a swordsman depends on the ability to feel the enemy and guess his movements.
The yellow ring represents the earth element and represents the discipline of cross-country running. It indicates perseverance and perseverance. The cross-country runner jumps over the elements, knowing when to slow down and when to speed up.
shooting discipline and unique properties metal depicts a black ring. This requires precision and clarity. The success of the shot depends not only on physical tension, but also on the ability of cold thinking, with which the shooter concentrates on the target and hits the target.
The Olympic Games are among the most anticipated and rated sports events in the world. Their main attribute is easily recognizable - five multi-colored rings. How did he appear? What do the Olympic rings mean?
We can explore this issue in the following main aspects:
History of the Olympic rings
The considered symbol of the Games first became known to the general sports community in 1920. Since then, he has consistently accompanied every winter or summer Olympics. Officially, the rings are used as an element of the flag, which is based on a white cloth, which has long been associated with the denial of wars, with peace. As you know, in ancient Greece, at the time of the Olympic Games, which became the direct prototype of modern ones, all fighting between the warring policies (whose representatives then held peace negotiations in Olympia).
The idea to complement the white flag, associated with the world, with colorful rings belongs to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the same person who came up with the idea of holding world competitions at the end of the 19th century, the history of which dates back to ancient times. In 1913, the masters of the Bon Marche studio, located in Paris, made the first sample of the Olympic flag. It was presented to the public in 1914 at the Sorbonne during the solemn events on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Olympic movement revived by Pierre de Coubertin.
It was originally planned to use the five-ringed flag at the 1916 Games. But by that time, the First World War had broken out, as a result of which it was impossible to hold competitions. However, already at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920, the new symbols were presented as official.
The interlacing of five multi-colored rings is a concept invented by Pierre de Coubertin, according to some sources, under the influence of the attributes of the Union of French Athletic Societies (Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques, USFSA), headed by the famous figure himself. The fact is that the emblem of this institution was two rings (red and blue), which are brought together.
It can be noted that the USFSA emblem was part of the structure of the logo of the International French Committee (Le Comité français interfédéral, CFI), which later became the French Football Federation. Below is an example of placing the corresponding element on the clothes of athletes.
The USFSA symbolism denoted the fact that the Union was formed by two separate associations operating in France - the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Course a Pied and the Committee for the Development of Physical Education (Comité pour la Propagation des Exercises Physiques). In turn, the blue and red colors in the USFSA attribute were used under the influence of the corresponding shades present in the national French flag.
At the same time, there is another version - according to which Pierre de Coubertin created the Olympic symbol in the form familiar to us, having seen images similar to it on ancient Greek objects.
The semantic content of the main Olympic attribute
What do the five Olympic rings used as the main attribute of the modern Games mean?
The fact that there are exactly 5 rings on the Olympic flag is associated by historians with the desire of Pierre de Coubertin to unite the symbols of several nations at once on a common white flag. So, yellow and blue colors denoted Sweden (the same shades are present on the national flag of this Scandinavian country); blue and white - the USA and several European states, on the official attributes of which, respectively, there are the indicated colors; yellow and red - Spain, Brazil, Australia, China and Japan. Remembering what the flags of these countries look like, we will see that they have yellow or red elements - and in the case of Spain, both.
Subsequently, the symbolism of the Olympics in the aspect of shades of 5 rings received additional interpretations. Let's consider them in more detail.
The above interpretation of the 5 Olympic rings as reflecting the competitive unity of world nations was considered the main one until 1951 - until the International Olympic Committee decided that the corresponding elements of the flag of the Games should be associated not with countries, but with continents. By the way, back in 1931, Pierre de Coubertin, as some sources testify, spoke about the need to interpret the semantic content of 5 rings in this way.
True, the founder of the modern Olympic movement did not specify which specific continent each of the rings should correspond to. At least, there is no generally accepted public information that would unequivocally reflect the opinion of Pierre de Coubertin on this matter.
According to an unofficial interpretation of the correspondence of the marked elements of the Olympic flag to the continents, blue indicates Europe, yellow - Asia, black - Africa, green - Australia, red - America, both North and South. More widespread, however, is the version according to which these shades of the Olympic rings are present one way or another on the national flag of any country in the world.
In the general case, the color scheme and the mutual arrangement of the rings do not change when using the corresponding attribute of the Games within the framework of the competition. But sometimes it is possible to adapt them to the thematic concepts used by the organizers of the Olympiads. So, for example, at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, the rings were decorated in the form of identical white snowflakes - one of them, as you know, did not open at a crucial moment due to technical reasons. At the same time, there was a plexus between them, and such a condition for using the Olympic symbol in question is considered, as many experts believe, to have no alternative, mandatory in all cases.
At the same time, one-color execution of the Olympic rings is practiced quite often: for example, in the manufacture of souvenirs, the layout of various thematic bulletins and the media. At the same time, the IOC has no public objections to such formats for the use of the main attribute of the Games. According to sports historians and experts, this may indicate the commitment of this organization to the idea of unity, equality of world nations, regardless of the likely interpretations of the meaning of colors in the Olympic rings.
One of the most recognizable symbols around the world is the five Olympic rings, and its uniqueness lies in its simplicity of execution, which is why many sports fans depict it on their faces and in their hairstyles. The rings are arranged in a W-shape. Their colors are (from left to right): blue, black, red, yellow and green. Olympic emblem was first introduced in 1920 at the VII Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp (Belgium).
There are several theories about the origin and interpretation of such a popular emblem. The main version is a symbolic image of the unity of 5 continents, which was invented in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Until 1951, it was widely believed that a particular color corresponded to a particular continent. In particular, Europe is blue, Africa is black, America is red, Asia is yellow, Australia is green, but since the middle of the 20th century (in order to move away from racial discrimination), such a distribution of colors has been abandoned. The theory of the unity of all peoples is also supported by the fact that the flag of any state contains at least 1 color from the emblem.
Another version says that the idea of 5 multi-colored rings was taken from the psychologist Carl Jung. It was he who, during the period of enthusiasm for Chinese philosophy, combined the symbol of greatness and vitality (circle) with 5 colors, reflecting the types of energies (water, wood, fire, earth and metal). In 1912, the psychologist also introduced his own image of the Olympic competition - the modern pentathlon. In his opinion, all Olympians had to master each of the 5 types - swimming (water element - blue), fencing (fiery - red), cross-country running (earth - yellow), equestrian sports (wood element - green) and shooting (metal element - black).
When developing a personal emblem for each Olympic Games, this symbolism of 5 rings is always used. Due to their versatility, the rings are perfectly combined with other components of the image. National Olympic Committees have their own official emblems, but they also necessarily have 5 Olympic rings in their image.
