Truth behind why Olympic rings are five different colours
Kya Buller
Featured Image Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images
If you've ever wondered why the logo of the Olympics - the colourful rings - exists, then today is your lucky day.
The 2024 instalment of the iconic Olympic games is in full swing in France's capital city, and people's excitement to see who will take home the gold medals is at an all time high.
The global competition kicked off in Paris on 26 July and will last until 11 August, with Team GB pocketing two gold medals so far.
Laura Collett, Tom McEwen and Rosalind Canter won gold in the equestrian eventing team event, and Tom Pidcock secured gold for cross country mountain biking.
Advert
Amidst all of the fanfare and high-stakes competition, many others have been casting their attention to the logo of the event itself - the five colourful rings that interlock with each other.
The official Olympics website is a goldmine of information for anything you may wonder about the sporting extravaganza - including logo queries.
The website states: "The Olympic symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions, used alone, in one or in five different colours, which are, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red.
"The Olympic symbol (the Olympic rings) expresses the activity of the Olympic Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games."
It continues: "But watch out, it is wrong to say that each of the colours corresponds to a certain continent! In fact, when Pierre de Coubertin created the Rings in 1913, the five colours combined with the white background represented the colours of the flags of all nations at that time, without exception."
Pierre de Coubertin was was a French educator and historian, as well as being the former President of the International Olympic Committee.
The current President is Thomas Bach, who alongside being a lawyer, is an Olympic gold medallist - his sport was fencing.
But logo woes don't quite end there.
One eagle eyed TikToker, @kiandratrickett, who hails from Australia, noticed Channel 9 had been using the wrong logo altogether.
She asked: "Did I miss an Olympic ring rebrand?", before adding: "Channel 9, what is this?"
She then zoomed in on the (much too thin) rings the official Channel 9 app had used, which didn't interlock the way the official rings are supposed to.
One commenter said: "I have been looking at this for days just telling myself nah they wouldn’t do that."
Tyla previously reached out to Channel 9 for comment.
