I noticed the comment about the IOC I discounted it because Pierre de Coubertin s earliest comments about the meaning of the Olympic rings don t appear to use the word continent for example These five rings blue yellow black green and red represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other Coubertin Selected Writings II p 460 1913 On the other hand there are later quotes from him on the IOC site that apparently do use the phrase five continents talk contribs