Talk:Olympic symbols

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The explanation of the origin of the rings appears to be incorrect. According to the offical site for the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, the rings were conceived by Pierre de Coubertin and first used on the flag for the Antwerp 1920 games (the same flag that is passed from the mayor of the current host city to the mayor of the next host city during the closing ceremony). History page from Athens 2004 site. See also this page on the 1932 Los Angeles games - the logo incorporates the rings. -- Steve

Contents 1 Merger needed 2 No need to merge Summon the Heroes 3 Removed Description 4 O Canada 5 The Pentacle 6 Protectiveness of olympic symbols 7 Designer? 8 Which 1914 world Congress? 9 Mess with Nazis and Greece 10 Emblem or symbol; & plural article title

[edit] Merger needed

There appears to be a proliferation of pages about essentially the same thing: Olympic symbols (to which Olympic rings redirects), Olympic flag, Olympic Rings (capital 'R') - maybe more. I think these need merging, or at least reorganising such that they don't duplicate information. Perhaps best to make everything redirect to Olympic symbols, since that can neatly cover the otherwise inevitable overlap between the rings and the flag. Opinions (and action!) welcome. - IMSoP 20:54, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I will work on this. The pi pirate 03:42, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

I merged in Olympic flag, Olympic theme and fanfare, Kotinos, and Olympic mascots, adding appropriate redirects. The pi pirate 05:51, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No need to merge Summon the Heroes

I don't think we need to merge John William's Summon the Heroes with Olympic symbols, since it gives more information about the piece than it does about the first performance (1996 Olympic games). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Stimpy (talk • contribs).

I somewhat agree with you. The main reason that I had put the merge notice was that the Fanfare and Theme was merged with this article. I felt for consistency, The Olympic Spirit, Summon the Heroes, and Call of the Champions should either be merged here as well, or the Fanfare and Theme should get its own article (in addition to a mention on this, the symbols page). Nationalparks 09:07, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

If the stand-alone article for Summon the Heroes cannot be expanded to a reasonable non-stub length, then it would make sense to merge into one article all the content on John Williams' olympic fanfares and themes. As it stands, the Summon the Heroes article is way too brief to deserve preservation, but all four themes as a series by the same composer is a valid subject for an article. Darcyj 07:01, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed Description

I removed the following because I couldn't tell which version it was describing. Perhaps that can be clarified and reinserted; I apologize for the brutal editing.

Mark Foskey (About the fanfare)

It is one minute long, consisting of about 45 seconds of upbeat and somewhat repetitious orchestrated music, which is heavy on the brass and percussion, followed by a very distinctive 15-second theme dominated by trumpets and horns. These portions, being reasonably short and having high recognition value, are quite frequently heard in association with television the largest broadcasts of the Olympic Games, usually as an introduction or transition.

The remainder of the work (which is four minutes and twenty-eight seconds long altogether) explores the theme further and is musically interesting but much less frequently heard and consequently less widely recognized.

[edit] O Canada

I removed this line from the Fanfare and Theme section:

The first four notes of the theme closely resemble the first four notes of the Canadian national anthem, O Canada.

Musically, that's correct, but I'm not sure it belongs in this article (many pieces must begin with a leap up of a minor third then down by a fifth). Feel free to disagree. Nationalparks 06:51, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Pentacle

In his book "The Da Vinci Code", Dan Brown claims that the Olympic Comitee almost used a pentacle as the symbol for the flag, but later changed it to this as it better reflected the games's idea of unity. I don't know if this fact is true or not, however, I can find no evidence to the contrary. As I'm not a writer (I stink, to be honest), I wondered if someone could possibly include it. Scalene 10:51, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

• A lack of evidence to the contrary is not sufficient -- Da Vinci Code is a novel, a work of fiction. I would like to see some evidence (from a non-fictional source) before the pentacle is included. Liamdaly620 18:33, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
• It´s pure fiction. See this page for more information on the subject: [1]. Thuen 11:51, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Protectiveness of olympic symbols

The article mentions an extreme protectiveness of the Olympic name and symbols. Does anyone know the Olympic committee's stance on Olympic Airlines, especially with it's 90° rotated ring formation? I guess that they at least leave references to the mountain Mount Olympus in Greece and Olympus Mons on Mars alone, as well as Olympus, the camera/optics company. GSchjetne 15:55, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Designer?

It'd be nice to know who designed the Olympic rings emblem, as that is one of the most recognized symbols in the world. --J@red ^[T]/_[+] 15:59, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Which 1914 world Congress?

To which 1914 world congress does the Olympic Emblem section refer? It'd be worthy to wikilink it, too. --euyyn 18:24, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mess with Nazis and Greece

Again in the Olympic EMblem section:

The ceremony was celebrated but the stone was never removed. Later, two British authors Lynn and Gray Poole when visiting Delphi in the late 1950´s saw the stone and reported in their "History of the Ancient Games" that the Olympic rings design came from ancient Greece. This has become known as "Carl Diem's Stone". [3] [4]. This created a myth that the symbol had an ancient Greek origin. The rings would subsequently be featured prominently in Nazi images and theatrics in 1936 as part of an effort to glorify the Third Reich and claim a noble and ancient lineage.

I would have silently reordered the paragraph to avoid leaping forward and backward in history, but the bolded bit seems to imply that the "effort to claim a noble and ancient lineage" is based on the (1950's) myth... Which is evidently absurd, so... Why would the olympic emblem, in 1936, be something of a symbol of an ancient and noble lineage for the aria? --euyyn 18:34, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Emblem or symbol; & plural article title

The Olympic Charter [2] p. 18 calls the 5 rings the "Olympic symbol" but this article calls it the Olympic emblem. Is the use of "emblem" in the article deliberate or accidental? Likewise is the use of a plural article title deliberate or accidental? Nurg 01:48, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

The title of this page--plural--is deliberate because there are many symbols of the Olympics. However, since the Olympic Charter says that the official name of the rings is the Olympic symbol, then it should be thusly called on the page. Maybe you can fix it up. Good find! → JARED ^(t)  00:35, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Re the title: many things number more than one - just wondering why this is an exception to the convention of preferring singular nouns for titles. Nurg 09:50, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, I think it is because there isn't just one set symbol, or because each symbol is not alike. For example, there is music, and flags, and the rings, etc. The title "Olympic symbol" would either imply that there is only one symbol, or that Olympic symbols have a set definition or type, when they do not. It seems that the only way to combat this is to make separate pages for each "symbol." → JARED ^(t)  19:44, 20 November 2006 (UTC)