The five colours of the Olympic rings are red, blue, green, yellow and:

The five Olympic rings are blue, yellow, black, green and red. They interlock on a white background.

Arrangement of the rings:

The rings are placed in two rows. The top row has three rings, coloured blue, black and red from left to right. The bottom row has two rings, yellow and green.

All five rings are of equal size and are interlaced (each ring passes over and under its neighbours).

Meaning of the rings and colours:

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the five rings represent the union of the five continents (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania) and the meeting of athletes from all over the world at the Olympic Games.

No individual ring stands for a particular continent.

Pierre de Coubertin, who designed the symbol in 1913, explained that the six colours, including the white background, together reproduced the colours of the flags of every nation in the world at that time.

History of the symbol:

• The rings first appeared in 1913, at the top of a letter written by Coubertin and in the "Olympic Review".
• They were formally presented at the Olympic Congress in Paris in 1914.
• The Olympic flag with the rings was first flown at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.
• The rings are one of the most recognised symbols in the world and are legally protected.

Other Olympic symbols:

• Motto: "Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communiter" (Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together).
• Flame: lit at Olympia, Greece, with the sun's rays focused by a parabolic mirror.
• Paralympic symbol: the "Agitos", three curved shapes in red, blue and green.

Why not the other options?

• ✗White is the colour of the background of the Olympic flag, not of a ring.
• ✗Orange and purple are not Olympic ring colours.