I noticed the comment about the IOC I discounted it because Pierre de Coubertins earliest comments about the meaning of the Olympic rings dont 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    On the other hand there are later quotes from him on the IOC site that apparently do use the phrase five continents