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The Olympic symbols are icons, flags and symbols used by the International Olympic Committee to promote the Olympic Games. Some—such as the flame, fanfare, and theme—are more common during Olympic competition, but others, such as the flag, can be seen throughout the year.
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The Olympic motto is the hendiatris Citius, Altius, Fortius , which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger". (The Latin words are comparative adverbs, not adjectives.) The motto was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin on the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. De Coubertin borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who, amongst other things, was an athletics enthusiast. The motto was introduced in 1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris.[1]
The motto was also the name of an Olympic history journal from 1995 to 1997, when it was renamed the Journal of Olympic History.
A more informal but well known motto, also introduced by De Coubertin, is "The most important thing is not to win but to take part!" De Coubertin got this motto from a sermon by the Bishop of Pennsylvania during the 1908 London Games.[2]
The symbol of the Olympic Games is composed of five interlocking rings, colored blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field. This was originally designed in 1912 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Upon its initial introduction, de Coubertin stated the following in the August, 1912 edition of Olympique:
In his article published in the "Olympic Revue" the official magazine of the International Olympic Committee in November 1992, the American historian Robert Barney explains that the idea of the interlaced rings came to Pierre de Coubertin when he was in charge of the USFSA, an association founded by the union of two French sports associations and until 1925, responsible for representing the International Olympic Committee in France: The emblem of the union was two interlaced rings (like the vesica piscis typical interlaced marriage rings) and originally the idea of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung because for him the ring meant continuity and the human being.[3]
According to De Coubertin the ring colors with the white background stand for those colors that appeared on all the national flags of the world at that time.
The 1914 Congress had to be suspended because of the outbreak of World War I, but the symbol (and flag) were later adopted. They would first officially debut at the Games of the VII Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.
The symbol's popularity and widespread use began during the lead-up to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Carl Diem, president of the Organizing Committee of the 1936 Summer Olympics, wanted to hold a torchbearers' ceremony in the stadium at Delphi, site of the famous oracle, where the Pythian Games were also held. For this reason he ordered construction of a milestone with the Olympic rings carved in the sides, and that a torchbearer should carry the flame along with an escort of three others from there to Berlin. The ceremony was celebrated but the stone was never removed. Later, two British authors Lynn and Gray Poole when visiting Delphi in the late 1950s 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".[4] This created a myth that the symbol had an ancient Greek origin. The rings would subsequently be featured prominently in Nazi images in 1936 as part of an effort to glorify the Third Reich.
The current view of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is that the symbol "reinforces the idea" that the Olympic Movement is international and welcomes all countries of the world to join.[5] As can be read in the Olympic Charter, the Olympic symbol represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games. However, no continent is represented by any specific ring. Prior to 1951, the official handbook stated that each colour corresponded to a particular continent: blue for Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Oceania and red for America (North and South considered as a single continent); this was removed because there was no evidence that Coubertin had intended it.[6]
Each Olympic Games has its own Olympic emblem, which is a design integrating the Olympic rings with one or more distinctive elements. They are created and proposed by the Organizing Committee or the National Olympic Committee of the host country. It is the responsibility of the International Olympic Committee to approve Olympic emblems for the Olympic games. The Olympic emblems are used in promotional materials, by sponsors of the Olympics, on the uniforms of every Olympic competitor.
Created by Pierre De Coubertin in 1914.
| “ | The Olympic flag ... has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red ... This design is symbolic ; it represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time. | ” |
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—Pierre De Coubertin (1931)[7] |
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There are specific Olympic flags that are displayed by cities that will be hosting the next Olympic games. During each Olympic closing ceremony in what is traditionally known as the Antwerp Ceremony,[8] the flag is passed from the mayor of one host city to the next host, where it will then be taken to the new host and displayed at city hall. These flags should not be confused with the larger Olympic flags designed and created specifically for each games, which are flown over the host stadium and then retired. Because there is no specific flag for this purpose, the flags flown over the stadiums generally have subtle differences, including minor color variations, and, more noticeably, the presence (or lack) of white outlines around each ring.
The first Olympic flag was presented to the IOC at the 1920 Summer Olympics by the city of Antwerp, Belgium. At the end of the Games, the flag could not be found and a new Olympic flag had to be made for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Despite it being a replacement, the IOC officially still calls this the "Antwerp Flag" instead of the "Paris Flag"[9] It was passed on to the next organizing city of the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics until the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway when a separate Olympic flag was created to be used only at the Winter Olympics (see below). The 1924 flag then continued to be used at the Summer Olympics until the Games of Seoul 1988 when it was retired.
In 1997, at a banquet hosted by the US Olympic Committee, a reporter was interviewing Hal Haig Prieste who had won a bronze medal in platform diving as a member of the 1920 US Olympic team. The reporter mentioned that the IOC had not been able to find out what had happened to the original Olympic flag. "I can help you with that," Prieste said, "It's in my suitcase." At the end of the Antwerp Olympics, spurred on by team-mate Duke Kahanamoku, he climbed a flagpole and stole the Olympic flag. For 77 years the flag was stored away in the bottom of his suitcase. The flag was returned to the IOC by Prieste, by then 103 years old, in a special ceremony held at the 2000 Games in Sydney.[10] The original Antwerp Flag is now on display at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a plaque thanking him for donating it.[2]
The Oslo flag was presented to the IOC by the mayor of Oslo, Norway during the 1952 Winter Olympics. Since then, it has been passed to the next organizing city for the Winter Olympics. Currently, the actual Oslo flag is kept preserved in a special box, and a replica has been used during recent closing ceremonies instead.[11]
As a successor to the Antwerp Flag,[12] the Seoul flag was presented to the IOC at the 1988 Summer Olympics by the city of Seoul, South Korea, and has since then been passed on to the next organizing city of the Summer Olympics.[3]
For the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, an Olympic flag was created for the junior version of the Games.[13][14] The flag is similar in most ways to the Olympic flag, but has the words "Singapore 2010" on it and was first presented to Singapore by IOC President Jacques Rogge.[13][14] It was handed over to the next organising committee, Nanjing 2014, during the closing ceremony on 26th August, 2010.[15]
The modern tradition of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Greece to the Olympic venue began with the Berlin Games in 1936. Months before the Games are held, the Olympic Flame is lit on a torch, with the rays of the Sun concentrated by a parabolic reflector, at the site of the Ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. The torch is then taken out of Greece, most often to be taken around the country or continent where the Games are held. The Olympic torch is carried by athletes, leaders, celebrities and ordinary people alike, and at times in unusual conditions, such as being electronically transmitted via satellite for Montreal 1976, or submerged underwater without being extinguished for Sydney 2000. On the final day of the torch relay, the day of the Opening Ceremony, the Flame reaches the main stadium and is used to light a cauldron situated in a prominent part of the venue to signify the beginning of the Games.
The Olympic medals awarded to winners are another symbol associated with the Olympic games. The medals are made of gold-plated silver (commonly described as gold medals), silver, or bronze, and awarded to the top 3 finishers in a particular event. Each medal for an Olympiad has a common design, decided upon by the organizers for the particular games. From 1928 until 2000, the obverse side of the medals contained an image of Nike, the traditional goddess of victory, holding a palm in her left hand and a winners crown in her right. This design was created by Giuseppe Cassioli. For each Olympic games, the reverse side as well as the labels for each Olympiad changed, reflecting the host of the games.
In 2004, the obverse side of the medals changed to make more explicit reference to the Greek character of the games. In this design, the goddess Nike flies into the Panathenic stadium, reflecting the renewal of the games. The design was by Greek jewelry designer Elena Votsi.[16] Since then the medals don't have a common side as the design for both sides is decided by the host organizers.
The Olympic Hymn, also known informally as the Olympic Anthem, is played when the Olympic Flag is raised. It is a musical piece composed by Spyridon Samaras with words written from a poem of the Greek poet and writer Kostis Palamas. Both the poet and the composer were the choice of Demetrius Vikelas, a Greek Pro-European and the first President of the IOC. The anthem was performed for the first time for the ceremony of opening of the 1896 Athens Olympic Games but wasn't declared the official hymn by the IOC until 1957. In the following years every hosting nation commissioned the composition of a specific Olympic hymn for their own edition of the Games. This happened up until the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
In the US, Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream" is often considered to be the "Olympic theme". Written in 1958 for Arnaud's Charge Suite, it is this piece, more than any of the fanfares or Olympic themes, that Americans recognize as the Olympic theme, a connection which began when ABC television used it in broadcasts for the 1964 Olympics, and was continued in subsequent years by ABC and NBC. According to United States Olympic Committee spokesman Mike Moran, many athletes include this piece in the music they listen to while preparing for competition. Arnaud's piece is stately, beginning with a timpani cadence that is soon joined by a distinctive theme in brass.
For the Games of the XX Olympiad Munich 1972 the German composer and arranger Herbert Rehbein (15 April 1922 - 28 July 1979) created an Olympic Fanfare that was used as the TV signature tune of the German Olympic Centre (Deutsches Olympia-Zentrum, DOZ) as well as prelude to the medal ceremonies. The Olympic Fanfare 1972 was performed by the Orchestra of the Bavarian Broadcasting Company (Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) and members of the Air Force Band Neubiberg, conducted by Willy Mattes.
John Williams composed the "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" for the 1984 Olympic Games, which were held in Los Angeles. It was released in its entirety on an album titled "The Official Music of the XXIIIrd Olympiad Los Angeles 1984" (CBS BJS 39322) aka "The Official Music of the 1984 Games" (CBS 26048).[17] The album was released on LP and cassette, with the addition of a concurrent Japan-only CD release which has since become out of print and highly collectible, gaining eBay bids of $300.[18] The premiere recording was performed by an orchestra composed of Los Angeles-area musicians under the baton of the composer and was performed during the ceremonies by the United States Army Herald Trumpets conducted by then-Captain David Deitrick.[19] A slightly different arrangement of the piece was released on the Philips album "By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra."
In 1996, an alternate version of "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" was released on the album Summon the Heroes for the Atlanta Olympic Games. In this arrangement, the first part of the piece was replaced with Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream." Although perhaps not as familiar as Arnaud's theme, it is hardly unknown, since it also is still used in network coverage of the Olympics.
"Olympic Fanfare and Theme" (not including the familiar part by Arnaud) was awarded a Grammy in 1985.
The Williams theme was used during the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, as the nations' flagbearers entered BC Place Stadium surrounding the Olympic Flame. It was again used as the Olympic Flag was brought into the stadium by Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson prior to it being handed over to Anatoliy Pakhomov, the mayor of Sochi, Russia, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held.
Another piece by Williams, "The Olympic Spirit", was written for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the corresponding NBC broadcast. The piece utilizes the brass, wind, and percussion sections heavily. Williams also wrote the official theme of the 1996 Atlanta summer games, "Summon the Heroes", and the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games, "Call of the Champions." Several composers have contributed Olympic music during the years, including Richard Strauss, Henry Mancini, Francis Lai, Marvin Hamlisch, Philip Glass, David Foster, Mikis Theodorakis, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Vangelis, Basil Poledouris, Michael Kamen, and Mark Watters.
The kotinos (Greek: κότινος),[20] is an olive branch, originally of wild olive-tree, intertwined to form a circle or a horse-shoe, introduced by Heracles.[21] In the ancient Olympic Games there were no gold, silver, or bronze medals. There was only one winner per event, crowned with an olive wreath made of wild olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Aristophanes in Plutus makes a sensible remark why victorious athletes are crowned with wreath made of wild olive instead of gold.[22] The victorious athletes were honored, feted, and praised. Their deeds were heralded and chronicled so that future generations could appreciate their accomplishments.
Herodotus describes the following story which is relevant to the olive wreath. Xerxes was interrogating some Arcadians after the Battle of Thermopylae. He inquired why there were so few Greek men defending the Thermopylae. The answer was "All other men are participating in the Olympic Games". And when asked "What is the prize for the winner?", "An olive-wreath" came the answer. Then Tigranes, one of his generals uttered a most noble saying: "Good heavens! Mardonius, what kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight? Men who do not compete for possessions, but for honour."[23]
However in later times, this was not their only reward; the athlete was rewarded with a generous sum of money by his hometown. At Athens 2004 the kotinos tradition was renewed, although in this case it was bestowed together with the gold medal. Apart from its use in the awards-ceremonies, the kotinos was chosen as the 2004 Summer Olympics emblem.
The Olympic salute is a variant of the Roman salute, with the right arm and hand are stretched and pointing upward, the palm is outward and downward, with the fingers touching. However, the arm is raised higher and at an angle to the right from the shoulder.[24][25]
The greeting is visible on the official posters of the games at Paris 1924[24] and Berlin 1936.[26] Also famous is the French and Canadian teams entering the Olympic stadium in Berlin, 1936 with their arms raised. In the Leni Riefenstahl film Olympia this scene was captured, and afterwards led to repeated misinterpretations suggesting that the French and Canadian delegations were saluting Hitler.
Since the Second World War the greeting has fallen out of use because of the possibility of it being mistaken for the Nazi salute, although no official stance has been taken on the matter by the IOC.
Since the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, the Olympic Games have had a mascot, usually an animal native to the area or occasionally human figures representing the cultural heritage. The first major mascot in the Olympic Games was Misha in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Misha was used extensively during the opening and closing ceremonies, had a TV animated cartoon and appeared on several merchandise products. Nowadays, most of the merchandise aimed at young people focuses on the mascots, rather than the Olympic flag or organization logos.
The Olympic Movement is very protective of its symbols; as many jurisdictions have given the movement exclusive rights to any interlocking arrangement of five rings, and usage of the word "Olympic". They have taken action against numerous groups seen to have violated this trademark, including the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based band The Hopefuls (formerly The Olympic Hopefuls), Awana Clubs International, a Christian youth ministry who used the term for its competitive games, and Wizards of the Coast, publisher at the time of the IOC's complaint of the card game Legend of the Five Rings and others. But a few companies have been successful in using the Olympic name, such as Olympic Paint, which even has a paintbrush in the form of a torch as its logo, and the former Greek airline Olympic Airlines. Certain other sporting organisations and events have been granted permission by the IOC to use the word "Olympics" in their name, such as Special Olympics, an international sporting event held every four years for people with intellectual disabilities.
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