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Concept
Olympic symbols
Summary
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses icons, flags and symbols to elevate the Olympic Games. These symbols include those commonly used during Olympic competition—such as the flame, fanfare and theme—as well as those used throughout the years, such as the Olympic flag.
The Olympic flag was created in 1913 under the guidance of Baron de Coubertin of France. It was first hoisted in Alexandria, Egypt, at the 1914 Pan-Egyptian Games. The five rings on the flag represent the inhabited continents of the world (the Americas were considered as one continent and Europe was treated as distinct from Asia). It was made to contain the colours (blue, black, red, yellow, and green) which are common to almost all flags around the world.
The traditional Olympic motto is the hendiatris Citius, Altius, Fortius which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger". It was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee. Coubertin borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who was an athletics enthusiast. Coubertin said that "these three words represent a programme of moral beauty. The aesthetics of sport are intangible". The motto was introduced in 1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris. Coubertin's Olympic ideals are expressed in the Olympic creed:
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.
Coubertin got this text from a sermon by the Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, Ethelbert Talbot, during the 1908 London Games.
In 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the addition of the word "together", after an en dash, to the motto; it now reads "Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter", Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together" (or, in French, "Plus vite, Plus haut, Plus fort – Ensemble"). According to some Italian Latinists, such as professor Mario De Nonno and professor Giorgio Piras, the word "communiter" or "communis" is incorrectly used and a linguistics error.
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