Ask Mike: With These Rings…
Hey Guys,
The Olympics are just a few days away. Billions of people will follow along and root for their countries, but I have a feeling just as many will pause to inquire about the Olympic rings. What do they signify and who came up with the symbol?
My first stop was the official site for the 2008 Beijing Games. The site features a nice collection of articles, and one in particular on the Rings, the most recognized symbol in all the world (more on that later).
The symbol was created in 1913 by Pierre de Coubertin. According to the article, the Rings “represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other.” Contrary to popular belief, the different colors of the rings (blue, yellow, black, red, and green) weren’t intended to link a color to each continent. Rather, they were chosen because those colors appeared in all the different flags at the time.
So, just how popular is this symbol? Again, according to the official site, a 1995 survey found that 92% of people who were asked “correctly identified the Olympic Rings.” Tied for second were McDonald’s and Shell with 88% a piece. That’s a pretty amazing statistic.
Of course, the Olympics are more than just a symbol. In the most pure sense (not taking into account the scandals and sponsorships), they’re about different nations coming together in the spirit of friendship and competition. Mr. de Coubertin must have known this when he uttered something that would go on to become an oft-quoted maxim: “The important thing is not to win, but to take part.”
And now a question for you guys — with the massive time difference, most of the Olympic events will occur while Americans are fast asleep. Do you plan to try to avoid spoilers? If so, how? As someone who is online nearly all the time, I’d love to hear your tips so I can watch the games in ignorant bliss.
Thanks for reading,
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I have to confess that since the USSR fell, the Olympics haven’t been very exciting for me. All the fun was in trying to beat the Russians.
Now, it’s fun, but not nearly so exciting. I plan to simply check email and avoid news sites. Nothing too special because if I hit a spoiler, it won’t be too disappointing. It’s still fun to watch.
I spend a lot of time on the internet just as well, and I had this problem with American Idol. I usually recorded the results shows on my DVR. I’m a pretty busy girl, so I would just wait to watch them whenever I had the time. I didn’t want it to be spoiled for me before watching the entire show, so I’d try to avoid the pop news sites for a couple days. Sometimes I just couldn’t get around it though.
The American Idol spoilers aren’t as big of a deal to me as the Olympic spoilers, so I WILL be avoiding news sites a good bit during the Olympics.
Hah! Thanks about the info about the rings, didn’t know that and I wondered that by myself a few months ago. Glad that that’s been cleared up now.
About the time difference, I’m from Belgium, so the time difference is a bit better here
When it’s 1pm here it’s like 7pm there.. So I should be able to watch some things live..
~DigiTalizeD
That’s interesting. You learn something every day and I just learned two!
Thanks for the information!!!
Woops- sorry. My comment is above. I don’t usually watch the Olympics, just the summaries the day after.
They don’t really appeal to me anymore.
There is another significance to the rings, the symbolization of the five winning spirits. Those that can be calculated and verified. Three come to mind most readily; Stronger, Faster and Longer. What are the other two?
thanks for the history of the rings
that’s really cool
i’m going to try to avoid spoilers as much as possible
just avoid any new sites
Stop taking breathers/coffee breaks!!! We all want to use Yahoo! Answers!!! Not Yahoo! Coffee Breaks!!! I typed this and I garuntee you I could have got Best Answer and I always got a breather. Here is what I typed :It has to be 20GB, 60GB, or the old 80GB. 40GB and new 80GB have no backwards compatibility. And I think the 80GB dosn’t play all PS2 games. Just some. And on 60GB it’s either all or like 95% or 99%. And for 20GB I have no clue and I wouldn’t even go with th 20GB because if you want to download Playstation Network (PSN) and some games you wont have any memory to save or download any more games.
Hope I helped.
Now I tried everything I could to answer without getting breathers but nothing would work. Please respond. iloveplanes95@yahoo.com
THANKS!!!!!
Mike,
To me, always on the sidelines, the Olympics represent what is the best in we human beings. The chance to compete without politics or pride (until the winner is declared of course). Iraq can play soccer, Russia can swim, Romania can do gymnastics all on par with we the United States. Methinks that’s why many of us still hold a grudge against Pakistan for the 1972 (?) Olympics when they kidnapped the Isreali team members. To bring politics in is to degrade the entire meaning of the Games.
As for what I shall do to avoid spoiling the final moment? Well, there’s cave dwelling, or spending the week out in Arizona’s desert country…It’s really quite difficult especially when everyone gets excited over our wins. I suppose you could just avoid all media until the end…gasp!
Tape it if you can, otherwise you can usually catch the action on the official site, or other video sites (if you go to the video sites or the official site, learn the page of the actual events videos, so you can skip the front page which usually has news).
Thats what my brother does because he is a sports fanatic.
Then if you are taping it, just avoid all sports sections, websites, etc.
u really didnt no what their history was?
damn dude how old r u? im 14 and i no all about it.
I couldn’t care less about this crap.The modern Olympics are nothing more than cakes and circuses from the corporatist pigs who run the world.They have nothing to do with athletic competition and everything to with petty politics and corporate profit.
I run track in college, so I’ll just be glad that since it is late at night they might actually show a track meet!
I gave up trying to catch anything live on the Olympics years ago. The networks’ coverage of them has always sort of stunk anyway IMO. Like at the last Olympics, the U.S. women’s softball team ended up winning A GOLD MEDAL, but guess what?? No live TV coverage of it whatsoever. Found out about it by reading the sports pages of the newspaper, and also follow-up stories on the Net.
The last truly exciting and live Olympic event I saw on TV was when the men’s hockey team, against all odds, kicked butt, including the favored U.S.S.R.’s team, and won the gold medal. I watched it all live. Haven’t really seen anything to match it since.
YEA YEA!
not to be a troll but…
MEH B-DAY takes place on AUGUST 8TH
YAYERS! im so excited fo the Olympics!!!!
woot woot!
kinda funny how that happens huh?
Western SAMOA FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL THE WAY BABII!!!
wooooooooooooooooot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
something else interesting about the olympic games, other than their general history, is the original symbol they were planning to use before the joined rings. They were planning the five colors be a star in a circle for two reasons. The first being that the sumbol represnts unity in all things, and the second being that the planet venus, highly worshipped in ancient greece, makes that shape in the night sky every eight years. That is also why the games are played on the eight year circuit.
i find Answers a pretty disgusting and disgraceful item, overall. the nonsense about grammar, punctuation, and the use of Capitals is just that, a total nonsense.
I replied recently to someone who posted a question, which appeared to be begging for help. I responded and was quite taken aback by the absolutely disgusting reply that I received. I have no wish to be associated with such filth, rubbish and total CRAP and just as soon as anyone comes to visit who knows how to disable this particular function from my facility, I will be more than delighted to have no more association with ANSWERS.
Sad, in some way, because of one occasion when I badly needed advice on a huge financial problem, I received several replies from honest, erudite, informed folks, who put me on the right road after paying for legal advice which, in fact, told me nothing.
Over and out
What do you do that requires a rest? Are there not enough staff to continue operations when someone needs timeout?
I lost interest in the Olympics because it is big business and because it has become a geopolitical football/tool. I like real sports, the kind you do not watch drinking beer and eating snacks.
The comment before mine complaining about the experience many are having when asking Q’s should be taken seriously. The automated report abuse system ,itself abused, is not a good solution.
BTW, can someone raise the blocked user allowance to a 1000 from 200. I ran up against the limit long ago! Also, how about adult-looking avatars instead of the cartoonish ones I see provided beyond the shadow profiles.
Two more suggestions free of charge via here bec I was banned from the uggestion forum-unfairly over a year ago.
this is one crazy blog or wat ever u want to call it,one person talks about some dum ass thing the next one curses her out cause they want to be on answer’s,
but on the real side no one really care’s who want wat,
haven’t u notice.
well i hope everyone get’s wat they want in the end..
lilbit..
Hey Mike,,,,What’s going on with the MAIL notifications from our contacts??,,,,,WE’RE NOT BEING NOTIFIED,,,,What’s Going On??
Yes, I will be sleeping while the games go on. but I cant care less, I rre0ally dont think we should be over there, they are n0ot to be trusted. , some day we’ll be fighting with them and we dont have a chance with the army they have. I think they’er up to no good.
Just stay off the internet.
I’m a real genius aren’t I? It took me hours to think of that.
Oh yeah, Tatertown, it’s “us human beings”, not “we human beings”.
I just got through reading all the commentsand I just couldn’t resist saying to the prude that thinks thats she is so perfect and never says what she’s really thinking. I dont think we will miss you, after you find someone to disconnect you from answers page. its so bad lol.
you need a shave and you look hung over
I honestly am shying away from the Olympics this year after hearing about how they killed all those cats in the streets and that they eat dogs….picking them from cages as we pick lobsters! Sick!
the rings symbolise different nations or sumthing
I don’t care enough about the olympics any more. It used to be about the young people working together to compete and become recognized as the top physically capable people in the world while making international connections to promote peace and understanding.
Now its about the royal olympic committee and all the commercial benefits that a few winners will get.
Again Money or the love of MONEY spoils everything. I will be pleased if a real US citizen wins for the US. But even that is distorted. We see US citizens fail to get a spot in the US team so they go to another country and vice versa.
hey mike thanks for that piece, indeed i was just wondering about the symbol as i watched the opening ceremony.
for me the olympics represents a period when the “less developed” nations can teach the “super powers” a lesson, snaching goals right under their noses thereby teaching them a lesson or two
Every nation in the world has at least one color in their flag represented in the Olympic rings, that’s how the colors were chosen, to show worldwide unity.
I was disappointed to see how many professional American basketball players are playing for other countries in the Olympics. Maybe soon the Olympics will just be an extended NBA, jk.
Most of the educated people are unaware of things happening around us. I was talking to my uncle, who is a doctor and a director in his 51 bedded Nursing and Maternity hospital, when he said “why have you guys stencilled “AMBULANCE” in such a odd manner with the word barely legible? I felt confused and sad that he had to be explained that on the road the driver of the vehicle in front, will be able to read the word “AMBULANCE” in HIS REAR VIEW MIRROR.
hey mike. I’m going to the beer store but I just gotta tell you something. I will like it when I read it. Your articles are always good. I was going to ask you (just joking.) about the Yamster. This must be a hell of a place to run. All of y’all hang in there. Can I get a date with that cute yeh. I remember.
Jane. She is a sweet girl.
I learned that the rings are the colors they are because it includes every color in every flag of every nation repersented
Olympiads are supposed to be the world’s best. However, there are many non-olympiads who excelled in other world arena of competition and not in the olympics. And some could even compete and surely win against olympic proclaimed winners! Is Olympic losing its awesomeness bit by bit?
Yes, countries are there spending much for friendship & unity. But has it improve present relationship situations between countries?
We are in the central time zone and my sons are making a big deal of staying up late to watch the late programming. I feel that is just part of the Olympics experience to watch TV at odd hours b/c it is in another country. So far, I have not had anything spoiled for us. This will be the first Olympics that my sons relly remember and that is important to me. I attended in 1984 and that contiunes to be the greatest experience for me of all time.
I don’t even know,fellow!) continued to write in the same vein, it is interesting people!