The Olympic Flag, which flies in the main stadium and all other venues
of the Games, is white with five interlaced rings in the center. The rings
are blue, yellow, black, green and red, with the blue ring high on he left,
nearest the flag pole. These rings represent the five continents joined
in the Olympic Movement. The proper arrangement and interlacing of the
rings is shown on the sketch below. here is no country that has not one
or more of these colours in its national flag. It was created in 1913,
at the suggestion of Baron de Coubertin, and was used for the first time
at the Olympic Games in 1920 at Antwerp.
There are official flags for both the Olympic Games and the Olympic
Winter Games.
(Source document: The Olympic Games, IOC Lausanne,
1958, page 75)
The seventh Olympic Games
Baron Pierre de Coubertin
President, International Olympic Committee
...........
This time ( Olympic Games 1920 Antwerp) , there were two innovations;
first, the pledges taken by the athletes, spoken aloud by one of them (a
Belgian holding the flag of his country) in the name of all, al follows:
"We swear that we are taking part in the Olympic Games as loyal competitors,
observing the rules governing the Games, and anxious to show a spirit of
chivalry, for the honor of our countries and for the glory of the sport."
Thus modern Games go back, little by little, to their illustrious ancestors
by the successive restoration of both the ceremonies and the symbolic acts
which gave to the former so great and deep a meaning.
The second innovation was the appearance of the Olympic flag,
with its five entwined circles, multicolors on a white background, evoking
the five parts of the world united by Olympism, and at the same time reproducing
the colors of every nation. This flag was inaugurated in Paris, June, 1914,
during the celebration of the 20th "anniversary of the reorganisation of
the Olympic Games," but it had never yet appeared at an Olympiad gathering.
At Antwerp, its glorious colors were displayed everywhere, and its popularity
was great, so great that a group of athletes, one fine night, in the town,
carried off everything so as to bring home with them this tangible souvenir
of the Seventh Olympiad. Unfortunately, the Police were on guard: arrests,
trials, consular interventions, followed.
...........
The olympic flag was raised in
the Olympic Games in Antwerp 1920
for the first time.
(Source document: Report of the American Olympic Committee,
seventh Olympic Games Antwerp, Belgium 1920, page 54 - 55)
Olympic Charter, Rule
8, The Olympic Symbol
Olympic Charter, Rule 9,
The Olympic Flag
Olympic Charter, Rule 11,
Olympic Emblems
Olympic Charter, Rule 14,
Olympic Designations
Olympic Charter, Rule 32,
Flag, Emblem and Anthem of an NOC
Olympic Charter, Rule 54,
Use of the Olympic Flag
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