The Olympic rings were unveiled in 1913, a year after the Summer Olympics in Stockholm. As with many other things, the rings were the brainchild of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement. The 1916 Summer Games were scheduled to take place in Berlin but were canceled after the start of World War I. It was at the 1920 Olympic Games, in Antwerp, that the Olympic rings took their place among the pantheon.

The five rings, as Coubertin envisioned them, symbolize Earth's five continents: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The rings are shown intertwined are a symbol of peace, dating to the Olympic Truce from the time of the Ancient Greek Olympics, for which wars were halted and athletes guaranteed safe passage to and from the Games.

As for the colors (one for each ring and white for the background), they were chosen because at least one of each could be found on the flag of every country in the world at the time.

Rule 8 of the Olympic Charter states this:
"The Olympic symbol expresses the activity of the Olympic Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games."

Rule 8 also states this:
"The Olympic symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions (the Olympic rings), used alone, in one or in five different colours. When used in its five-colour version, these colours shall be, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red. The rings are interlaced from left to right; the blue, black and red rings are situated at the top, the yellow and green rings at the bottom in accordance with the following graphic reproduction."

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