Olympic Flag

This is a thumbnail of the Olympic flag printout. The full-size printout is available only to site members.

To subscribe to Enchanted Learning, click here.

If you are already a site member, click here.

The flag of the Olympic Games has five interlocking rings (blue, yellow, black, green, and red) on a white ground. The rings represent the five parts of the world that were joined together in the Olympic movement: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. The motto of the Olympic Games is "Citius, altius, fortius" (meaning "Faster, higher, stronger").

The Ancient Olympics:
The ancient Greeks held the first Olympic games in the year 776 BC, and had only one event. Every four years, for 1,170 years, the Greeks held an Olympics, which continued to grow and change. The Olympic games were banned by the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II in the year AD 394.

History of the Olympics Flag:
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937), a French educator and sportsman, revived the Olympic Games in 1896. He designed the flag of the Olympics in 1913-1914.

The flag was first used in the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. The Olympic flag is paraded during the opening ceremony of each Olympic Games. At the end of an Olympics, the mayor of the host-city presents the flag to the mayor of the next host-city. The flag will remain in the town hall of the next host-city until the next Olympic Games, four years later.