Olympic Flag

The Olympic Flag was first designed by modern Olympic founder, Pierre De Coubertin in 1914. According to De Coubertin, "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."

Since the 1960 Winter Olympics, the Olympic Flag is always carried into the stadium horizontally as the Olympic Anthem is playing. The flag is flown throughout the Games as stated in the Olympic Charter that it must "fly for the entire duration of the Olympic Games from a flagpole placed in a prominent position in the main stadium." At the conclusion of the Games, the flag is then lowered from the flagpole and carried out the same way it was brought in.

There are four special Olympic Flags that differ from all others in that they have a six color fringe around it. These flags are displayed by the cities that will next host the Games. The flags are passed to the mayor of the next Olympics during the closing ceremony and will be displayed at city hall.

-Antwerp Flag: The first Olympic flag was presented to the IOC at the 1920 Olympics by the city of Antwerp, Belgium. At the conclusion of the Games the flag was stolen and could not be found. A new Olympic flag was made for the 1924 Olympics.

-Paris Flag: The new Olympic flag was designed and created for the 1924 Paris Olympics and was passed to the next organizing city of each Summer and Winter Olympics until the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway when a separate flag was created for the Winter Olympics. The Paris flag continued to be used for each Summer Olympics until the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

-Oslo Flag: The Oslo flag was presented by the mayor of Oslo, Norway during the 1952 Olympics. It has continued to be passed to each host city of the Winter Olympics since then.

-Seoul Flag: The new flag was presented by the mayor of Seoul, South Korea after the retirement of the Paris flag. It has since been passed to each host city of the Summer Olympic Games.