BSSM’s logo consists of two elements that show the dual aspect of our association: the lion is one of the symbols of Bocconi University, while the surrounding circular shapes represent the Olympic circles, expressing a direct connection with the sports sphere.
We all know that the five intertwined rings represent the union of the five continents and the coming together of athletes from all over the world to participate in the Olympic Games, but few of us would be able to identify the name of the designer and tell the story behind it. The concept of the rings can be traced back to Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat and intellectual known as the founder of the modern Olympics. It was not until the Sixth Olympiad that the rings became the official logo of this international multi-sport event. In 1912 in Stockholm, with the debut of Japan, the first time an Asian nation participated, the first Olympics was held with athletes from all five inhabited continents of the world.
According to de Coubertin, the colors of the Olympic flag represented almost all nations since these colors were present in the flags of most countries (including white, which is the background color), and no ring is specifically associated with a particular continent, although existing rumors suggest that blue represents Europe, black Africa, red the Americas (north and south), yellow Asia, and green Oceania.
Fourteen nations took part in the first modern Olympics held in Athens. The participants were all Europeans, or at least lived in Europe, with the exception of the U.S. team. Chile established itself as the first Latin American country to participate in the Olympic Games by sending 13-year-old Luis Subercaseaux to Athens. His achievements are not listed in the official report, as the latter typically includes only medal winners. Australia was another country that saw only one representative participate in 1896, namely Edwin Flack. He was sent to London a year earlier to receive further training as an accountant with the firm Price, Waterhouse & Co (now the famous PwC) and decided to take part in the following Olympics after joining the London Athletic Club. During the Games, Flack was an incredibly popular champion. Although he is now known for winning double gold medals, there were no gold medals in those early Games.
The stories of the remaining two continents might not sound so pleasant, since most of their nations at that time suffered from Western colonialism. Preceding Japan’s debut as the first Asian nation as mentioned earlier, Norman Pritchard, an ethnic British athlete, won two silver medals at the 1900 Paris Olympics for India, the country where he was born. He later became an accomplished stage actor and later moved to the United States to work in Hollywood.
South Africa was undoubtedly the first African nation to participate in the Olympics, however the first Africans to participate in the modern Olympics were not exceptional athletes such as Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia, who won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome, becoming the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal. In fact, the first South African athletes were battle-hardened soldiers, led by a Canadian scout who had served with the British during the Boer War, including two Tswana men, Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiane, who were the first black Africans to participate in the Olympics, and the only blacks to represent South Africa in the Olympics until the end of apartheid. The 1904 marathon was an informal event, run on an unsuitable course and on roads so dusty that many of the athletes broke down. Taunyane finished ninth out of 32 participants and 14 athletes who finished the course. This was a disappointment, as many observers were sure that Taunyane could have done better if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by aggressive dogs. His compatriot Mashiani finished the marathon in 13th place.
BOCCONI STUDENTS FOR SPORT MANAGEMENT 