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Olympics - Proposals of Olympic flags

First Proposals
Later Proposals

See also:

Other sites:

International Olympic Committee Website

First Proposals

image by Ivan Sanche, June 16, 2003

Regarding the [real] first proposal, Karl Lennartz - The Story of the Rings [Lek00?] writes:
... The introduction of an IOC flag was discussed for the first time during the 12th Session 1910 in Luxembourg. Theodore COOK who had already taken care of the Olympic Games 1908 in London as an organiser and their artistic implementation, and who had also written a paradigmic official report, presented a model of a flag and the design of medals.
... The flag and the medals were handed over to be dealt with by a commission with the members COOK, Godefroy de BLONAY (SUI), Jules de MUSZA (HUN), Clarence von ROSEN (SWE) and Eugenio BRUNETTA d‘USSEAUX (ITA). The commission held a meeting which brought a proposal, but the result was not accepted by the general assembly. COUBERTIN let the matter be adjourned. ... However the question of a ”permanent” emblem for the IOC was discussed once more at the 115th Session in May 1913, in Lausanne. The proposal from Cook was rejected ...
Source: http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv10n1/JOHv10n1m.pdf
Whether all three cases referred to the exact same flag proposal, or whether the subsequent discussions were of modified version, I don't know. But Cook's proposal seems to have been the very first proposal for an Olympic flag.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 02 May 2012

Of course, Karl Lennartz probably wasn't there at the time, so the information must be documented somewhere, and more details might be included.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 01 September 2014

I read also a different interpretation in the title: What national flags would have been at the first Olympic Games with national teams: Athens 1906? Several countries must have changed flags between then and now.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 02 October 2014

Later Proposals

In 1956, an Australian sent to the International Olympic Committee a letter suggesting the athletes from the different nations should mix together during the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. The suggestion was accepted. Based on this precedent, people have sent to President of the IOC Jacques Rogge ten proposals of improvements of the Olympic Games.

Proposal #1

Deals with the flag. The traditional flag of the IOC should be amended by adding an orange ring around the five rings symbolizing the five continents. This "sixth ring" would symbolize the Earth, on which live all the athletes. Orange would symbolize "a new planetary dawn standing for the unity of all nations".

Proposal #2

Deals with the opening ceremony. For each participating nation, the national flag would be borne by a man and the new Olympic flag by a woman.

Proposal #3

Deals with the jersey. A jersey with the new Olympic emblem would be worn by the volunteers and those athlets who would enjoy it. This would be a means to decrease chauvinism.

Proposal #4

Deals with the medal ceremony. The Olympic anthem would be played instead of the winner's national anthem in order to honour all the competitors. [Nothing is said on flmag hosting. Moreover, ceremonies with always the same anthem played would be very boring].

Other proposals

The other proposals are not flag related. They deal with mixing of the sexes and new kinds of competition, including mixed and backwards (marathon!) races. The authors of the proposals seems to be great advocated of mixing of the sexes and backwards sport.

I don't know how serious these proposals are and if they were really sent to Jacques Rogge.
Posted by Ivan Sache, June 16, 2004.
From: http://www.backward-running-backward.com/olympicfrench.htm (In French, but also available in other languages).

I can't say about the following ten suggestions, but the one above concerning the closing ceremony is true. The letter was written by a teenage boy of Chinese heritage living in Melbourne. His idea was to diffuse tensions among nations during the Cold War, by having all nations marching as one team. This guy, now in his sixties and currently lives in Romania, but is still far from forgotten...
Miles Li, June 16, 2004