ACT 03

DESCRIPTION:

         The modern Olympic Games are the leading international sporting event featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of . The Olympic Games are considered to be the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart. Their creation was inspired by the ancient, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de  Coubertin founded the International Olympic Commitee (IOC) in 1894. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The Olympic Movement uses symbols to represent the ideals embodied in the Olympic Charter. The Olympic symbol, better known as the Olympic Rings, consists of five intertwined rings and represents the unity of the five inhabited continents. The colored version of the rings—blue, yellow, black, green, and red—over a white field forms the Olympic flag. These colors were chosen because every nation had at least one of them on its national flag. The flag was adopted in 1914 but flown for the first time only at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. It has since been hoisted during each celebration of the Games.

         The Olympic Motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius, a Latin expression meaning "Faster, Higher, Stronger" was proposed by Pierre de  Coubertin in 1894 and has been official since 1924. The motto was coined by Coubertin's friend the Dominican priest Henri Didon OP, for a Paris youth gathering of 1891.