Olympic icons: Experts explore what makes Olympic sounds and symbols timeless
The Olympic rings, which debuted at the 1920 Olympic Games, are meant to represent the five inhabited continents recognized by the Olympics at the time.
International Olympic Committee
The Olympics are a grand celebration of human achievement, with athletes of each generation continuing to redefine physical excellence. While the performance and presentation in each version of the Olympics continue to evolve, some of the event's iconic elements have withstood the test of time, including the instantly recognizable Olympic rings logo and sweeping music heard throughout the broadcast.
The global competition begins Friday, when hundreds of Olympic athletes, including several current and former Wildcats, will ride on 160 boats through Paris as part of the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Games. Ahead of the games, university experts spoke about two of the most recognizable Olympic icons.
Olympic fanfare
Fanfares have been part of Brian Luce's life for decades. Before becoming professor and associate director in the School of Music, Luce attended school in Texas, where it's an understatement to say football is a way of life. With that comes large marching bands and spirited music to prepare players and fans for competition.
Brian Luce, professor, School of Music
Luce began writing and performing fanfares while he was still in high school, and began conducting them while a student at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
Fanfares, Luce explained, are normally 32- to 64-bar pieces that last about a minute and a half. The music is typically focused around brass instruments, since it is often performed outside and the sound needs to carry.
"Historically, they have been a way to communicate with a large amount of people in a large space when just using your voice isn't enough," he said. "They were used for hundreds of years in the military world, where they would tell soldiers that it was time for battle. And in sports, that's what it still means: We're ready for competition."
French American composer Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream" was used as the Olympic theme for television broadcasts beginning in the 1960s. In 1984, when composer John Williams – known for his iconic music in the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter film franchises – debuted his "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" for the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Luce said he and musicians around the country knew it was something special.
"Once we heard the new piece in 1984, we all knew we had to arrange marching shows with it immediately," he said. "It took off like wildfire, because it sounds great and it's short enough that you can design a marching drill that doesn't include a huge amount of movement."
In 1996, NBC combined "Bugler's Dream" with "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" to create the music we associate with the Olympics today. Luce said the first part of the combined theme uses Arnaud's slower-paced sound.
"The second strain is what we call 'triple tonguing.' It has a lot of high, rapid-fire energy to it," he added.
The Olympic theme, he said, achieves the most basic of goals for athletic fanfares – the audience knows a high-energy event is about to happen, and the athletes are ready for friendly combat.
Olympic rings
To be effective on a global scale, a logo needs a few key elements.
"It needs to be simple, it needs to be timeless, it needs to be versatile and it needs to convey a message," said Karen Zimmerman, professor in the illustration, design and animation program in the School of Art.
Karen Zimmerman, professor, School of Art
Based on a design by Pierre de Coubertin – who is often referred to as the father of the modern Olympic Games – the Olympic rings logo was presented publicly for the first time in 1913, and debuted at the 1920 Olympic Games. It shows five interlaced rings of different colors: blue, yellow, black, green and red. The rings represent the five inhabited continents as recognized by the Olympics at the time. The colors were chosen because they were common in almost every competing country's flag at the time.
The logo checks all of the boxes, Zimmerman said.
The Olympic rings were based on a design by Pierre de Coubertin – who is often referred to as the father of the modern Olympic Games.
International Olympic Committee
"The circle is a symbol that is iconic and has multiple meanings," she explained. "By combining the five of them with five different colors, it communicates a message of the different parts of the world coming together. The circles are overlapping, so it gives a sense of unity – the gathering of countries, the gathering of people."
While the Olympic rings logo has been a mainstay for more than a century, each version of the games brings its own design elements, including the medals awarded to athletes. She said two recent designs are among her favorites:
- Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver, 2010: The medals feature the Olympic rings over Indigenous designs on one side, and the official name of the games in English and French on the other. "I like it because it integrated Indigenous designs alongside the five rings."
- Olympic Winter Games, Turin, Italy, 2006: The medals have an empty space in the middle. One side features the Olympic rings and simple curved line designs, while the other has a pictogram representing the event in which the medal was won. "They're very simple designs on the circles, which have holes in the middle. The form and design really work well together. There is also historical significance to that form, relating to ancient Italian coins."
Learn more about the university's 2024 Olympians on the Arizona Athletics website.
Michael Chesnick, marketing and outreach specialist with the School of Art, and Mindi Acosta, assistant information specialist with the School of Music, helped with this story.