Rio 2016 is just around the corner – but what do those five Olympic rings in the logo actually mean?

THE eyes of the world will be on Rio de Janeiro in just over two weeks time as the 2016 Olympic Games get underway.

We’re long used to the event’s famous multicoloured logo – but what do those five majestic, interlocking rings actually stand for?

The rings date back to 1894, when French aristocrat and educator Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin held a congress in Paris with the aim of reviving the ancient Olympic Games.

Proposals were put forward for a modern Olympics and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was born, which put the wheels in motion for the 1896 Athens Games.

The Paris, St Louis (USA) and London Olympics followed, but the five-ring emblem didn’t appear until the Stockholm Games in 1912.

The event was the first Olympics to feature athletes from all five inhabited parts of the world – and was also the fifth games since Baron de Coubertin called the congress.

To symbolise this, Coubertin designed the five-ringed logo, choosing colours that that appeared on all the national flags that competed in the games at that time.

Speaking about the design, which first appeared at the top of a letter Coubertin sent to a colleague, he explained: “The six colours (including the flag’s white background) combined in this way reproduce the colours of every country without exception.

“The blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the tri-colours of France, England, America, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Hungary, and the yellow and red of Spain, are placed together with the innovations of Brazil or Australia, with old Japan, and with new China.

“Here is truly an international symbol.”

Coubertin later used the design as the emblem of the IOC’s 20th anniversary celebration in 1914.

A year later it became the official Olympic symbol.

The rings were used on flags and signs for the 2016 Games, to be held in Berlin, but the event was cancelled due to the ongoing World War.

They made their belated debut at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium.

Legend has it Coubertin was inspired to include the ring shapes in his design from his time as president of the French sports-governing body, the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA) – four years before he called the Olympics congress.

The USFSA was formed from two smaller sporting bodies that merged together and to mark this, a logo of two interlocking rings on a white background – one red and one blue – was created and worn on the uniforms of USFSA athletes.

In a 1992 Olympic Revue article, historian Robert Barney said: “It seems quite obvious that Coubertin’s affiliation with the USFSA led him to think in terms of interlocked rings or circles when he applied his mind towards conceiving a logo.

“Indeed, a ring-logo that would symbolise his Olympic Movement’s success up to that point in time.

“Circles, after all, connote wholeness; the interlocking of them, continuity.”

The IOC take the logo very seriously; the rings are subject to very strict usage rules and graphic standards.

Altering them in any way is strictly forbidden and the rings themselves can’t exceed a third of the total area of the emblem.