How many rings are on the Olympic flag?

There are five rings on the Olympic flag. The interlocking rings form the Olympic symbol and represent the union of the world's inhabited continents and the meeting of athletes from around the globe.

Pierre de Coubertin created the design in 1913, and the Olympic flag was introduced in 1914. It was first raised at an Olympic Games during the opening ceremony of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.

The rings are blue, yellow, black, green and red, set against a white background. Coubertin chose the design so that the colors, together with the white field, could be found in the flags of nations competing at the time.

A frequent misconception is that each ring has an officially assigned continent, such as blue for Europe or yellow for Asia. The International Olympic Committee does not make that one-to-one color assignment. The important number is five: it expresses global unity, while the interlocking arrangement symbolizes connections among nations and athletes.