<P> The 1914 Congress was suspended due to the outbreak of World War I, but the symbol and flag were later adopted . They would first officially debut at the Games of the VII Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920 . </P> <P> The symbol's popularity and widespread use began during the lead - up to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin . Carl Diem, president of the Organizing Committee of the 1936 Summer Olympics, wanted to hold a torchbearers' ceremony in the stadium at Delphi, site of the famous oracle, where the Pythian Games were also held . For this reason he ordered construction of a milestone with the Olympic rings carved in the sides, and that a torchbearer should carry the flame along with an escort of three others from there to Berlin . The ceremony was celebrated but the stone was never removed . Later, two American authors, Lynn and Gray Poole, when visiting Delphi in the late 1950s, saw the stone and reported in their History of the Ancient Games that the Olympic rings design came from ancient Greece . This has become known as "Carl Diem's Stone". This created a myth that the symbol had an ancient Greek origin . </P> <P> The current view of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is that the symbol "reinforces the idea" that the Olympic Movement is international and welcomes all countries of the world to join . As can be read in the Olympic Charter, the Olympic symbol represents the union of the "five continents" of the world and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games . However, no continent is represented by any specific ring . Prior to 1951, the official handbook stated that each color corresponded to a particular continent: blue for Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Australia and Oceania and red for the Americas; this was removed because there was no evidence that Coubertin had intended it (the quotation above was probably an afterthought). Nevertheless, the logo of the Association of National Olympic Committees places the logo of each of its five continental associations inside the ring of the corresponding color . </P> <P> The Olympic flag was created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1925 . </P>

Meaning of the rings of the olympic games