Texarkana Gazette

Icons Welcome World to Rio

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When we think of the Olympic Games, we often picture the multi-colored rings. What do the rings mean?

The symbol was the idea of a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, who is sometimes called the father of the modern Olympic Games. The five colored rings, along with the white background, represent the colors appearing on all the flags of the countries that competed in the Olympics in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The rings weren’t formally used until the 1920 Games.

2016 mascots

For each Olympic Games, emblems and characters are created that show the world something about the city and country where the events are taking place.

This year, the mascot of the Olympics is Vinicius, a mixture of the cats, monkeys and birds that live in Brazil. He is named after Vinicius de Moraes, a famous musician and poet in Brazil. His best friend, the Paralympic­s mascot, is Tom. He represents all the plants in the Brazilian forests.

Pictogram Mini quiz

A pictogram (PICT-o-gram) is a symbol that represents something. For example, in ancient times, people drew pictograms (or pictograph­s) on rock walls to tell stories about their lives.

With each Olympics, pictograms are used to identify the sports. For the 2016 Olympics, there are 41 different sports and pictograms!

The Mini Page challenges you to a matching game. Try to match each of these eight pictograms to its sport.

 ??  ?? Mini Fact: The 2016 emblem shows Brazilians embracing each other around the outline of Sugarloaf Mountain, a peak in Rio de Janeiro.
Mini Fact: The 2016 emblem shows Brazilians embracing each other around the outline of Sugarloaf Mountain, a peak in Rio de Janeiro.
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 ??  ?? Vinicius
Vinicius
 ??  ?? Tom
Tom

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