{"id":3464,"date":"2016-08-04T08:20:48","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T12:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=3464"},"modified":"2016-08-03T14:43:19","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T18:43:19","slug":"flags-will-open-2016-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Flags will open 2016 Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Olympic flag’s rings represent the colors of national flags. (wikipedia.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The quadrennial return of the Summer Olympics on August 5 brings with it lots of flags, including the games\u2019 own banner. The iconic white flag with five interlocked circles honors teams that come from around the globe to compete in scores of sports.<\/p>\n

When the flag was first designed, each nation was represented by a colored ring, as explained in 1912 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin<\/a>, one of the founders of the modern Olympics. He said that \u201cthe blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the tri-colors of France, England, America, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Hungary, and the yellow and red of Spain, are placed together\u2026.Here is truly an international symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chinese<\/a>
Chinese athletes march into the 2008 Olympics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That list reflects how few countries participated in the first competitions. In 1931, as more nations sent athletes, he expanded on what the flag means: \u201cThe Olympic flag<\/a> … has a white background, with five interlaced rings in\u2026blue, yellow, black, green and red….This design is symbolic; the five colors are those that appear on at least one of all the national flags of the world at the present time.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>When athletes march into the arena to open the 2016 Olympics, the participating nations select someone to carry their flags. Over the years, the countries have chosen a variety of athletes, including swimmers, weight-lifters, boxers, gymnasts and canoeists.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>
Members and officials of the U.S. Olympic team in Sweden in 1912 accept an American flag<\/a>. (Library of Congress)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the case of the U.S., Michael Phelps, the champion swimmer who will take part in his fifth Olympics, was selected. He said that \u201cI\u2019ve never walked in an Opening Ceremony before\u201d because swimming competitions always begin immediately. This week, he told The Today Show on NBC that being chosen is \u201csomething I\u2019m obviously looking forward to. There\u2019s definitely going to be a lot of emotions. It\u2019s a huge honor to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brazil's<\/a>
Brazil’s flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because the games are being held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil\u2019s flag<\/a> will be seen quite often by TV viewers. One of the more unusual national flags<\/a>, it was adopted in 1889 and revised in 1992. It consists of a green background to honor the rain forests, a yellow lozenge to stand for mineral resources, a blue globe speckled with a star for each state in the union and a slogan: \u201cOrdem e Progresso,\u201d which means \u201corder and progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maranhao's<\/a>
Maranhao’s flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brazil\u2019s 27 states have their own state flags<\/a>, including a few that faintly echo the American flag<\/a>. For example, the state of Maranhao has alternating red, white and black stripes to represent the racial population. In the upper corner, a large star sits on a blue background. The state of Bahia has only four broad stripes, colored red and white. The upper left contains a blue background on which lies a white triangle.<\/p>\n

\"When<\/a>
When Los Angeles hosted the 1932 Olympics, flags fluttered above streets. (Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flag fanciers who watch the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics will be rewarded with flag after banner after pennant as scores of nations march together, united in sports.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quadrennial return of the Summer Olympics on August 5 brings with it lots of flags, including the games\u2019 own banner. The iconic white flag with five interlocked circles honors teams that come from around the globe to compete in scores of sports. When the flag was first designed, each nation was represented by a… continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[367,174],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-country-flags","tag-olympics"],"yoast_head":"\nFlags will open 2016 Olympics - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flags will open 2016 Olympics - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The quadrennial return of the Summer Olympics on August 5 brings with it lots of flags, including the games\u2019 own banner. The iconic white flag with five interlocked circles honors teams that come from around the globe to compete in scores of sports. When the flag was first designed, each nation was represented by a... continue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-04T12:20:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-03T18:43:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"317\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Breig\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Breig\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/\",\"name\":\"Flags will open 2016 Olympics - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-04T12:20:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-03T18:43:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":317,\"caption\":\"The Olympic flag's rings represent the colors of national flags. (wikipedia.com)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Flags will open 2016 Olympics\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a\",\"name\":\"James Breig\",\"description\":\"James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. His most recent book is \u201cStar-Spangled Baseball: True Tales of Flags and Fields\u201d about the links between the sport and flags. He is also the author of a nonfiction book about WWII, \\\"Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II\\\" and co-author of \\\"The Mystery of the Multiple Mothers,\\\" a novel. All three are available at www.amazon.com. His articles have appeared in newspapers and national magazines, including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (search for them at www.history.org\/journal) and History Magazine. He has won many national awards for his opinion writing, media columns and feature articles.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/author\/james\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Flags will open 2016 Olympics - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Flags will open 2016 Olympics - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","og_description":"The quadrennial return of the Summer Olympics on August 5 brings with it lots of flags, including the games\u2019 own banner. The iconic white flag with five interlocked circles honors teams that come from around the globe to compete in scores of sports. When the flag was first designed, each nation was represented by a... continue","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/","og_site_name":"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","article_published_time":"2016-08-04T12:20:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-03T18:43:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James Breig","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Breig","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/","name":"Flags will open 2016 Olympics - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-04T12:20:48+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-03T18:43:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Olympic-flags-rings-represent-the-colors-of-national-flags.-wikipedia.com_.jpg","width":500,"height":317,"caption":"The Olympic flag's rings represent the colors of national flags. (wikipedia.com)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/flags-will-open-2016-olympics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Flags will open 2016 Olympics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/","name":"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a","name":"James Breig","description":"James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. His most recent book is \u201cStar-Spangled Baseball: True Tales of Flags and Fields\u201d about the links between the sport and flags. He is also the author of a nonfiction book about WWII, \"Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II\" and co-author of \"The Mystery of the Multiple Mothers,\" a novel. All three are available at www.amazon.com. His articles have appeared in newspapers and national magazines, including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (search for them at www.history.org\/journal) and History Magazine. He has won many national awards for his opinion writing, media columns and feature articles.","url":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/author\/james\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3487,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions\/3487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}