--- title: Opening Ceremony Drones Form Olympic Rings: What They Mean description: Intel's shooting star drones morphed into the Olympic rings at the 2018 Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang. Here's what they represent canonical: https://time.com/5141718/opening-ceremony-drones-olympic-rings-represent/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-09T18:13:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-15T18:56:04.000Z og:title: What Do the Olympic Rings Those Drones Just Formed Even Mean? og:description: There's a symbolic reason behind the choice og:url: https://time.com/5141718/opening-ceremony-drones-olympic-rings-represent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0d2b4fcac2a99b5/698926edab6d77cd416b1ae3/opening-ceremony-olympic-rings.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Olympic-Rings-Opening-Ceremony og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Do the Olympic Rings Those Drones Just Formed Even Mean? twitter:description: There's a symbolic reason behind the choice twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0d2b4fcac2a99b5/698926edab6d77cd416b1ae3/opening-ceremony-olympic-rings.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Thousands of Intel Drones Lit Up the Opening Ceremony With the Olympic Rings. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:56 PM UTCPublished: Feb 9, 2018 6:13 PM UTC  The Olympic Rings are seen during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Pyeongchang Stadium on February 9, 2018. The Olympic Rings are seen during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Pyeongchang Stadium on February 9, 2018. SEAN M. HAFFEY/AFP/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:56 PM UTCPublished: Feb 9, 2018 6:13 PM UTC A record-setting 1,218 Intel drones came together to form the five Olympic rings in the sky at the 2018 Olympics [opening ceremony](http://time.com/5141157/pyeongchang-winter-olympics-opening-ceremony-tv/) in PyeongChang Friday, wowing viewers around the world. But while the opening ceremony drone display was certainly impressive, a significant aspect of the Olympic rings specifically was lost in its lack of color. The five colors of the Olympic rings were chosen by French aristocrat Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin in 1912 to celebrate the first time that all five inhabited continents—Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania—participated in the Olympic Games, according to [_Thrillist_](https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/what-do-the-olympic-rings-mean). “A white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red… is symbolic; it represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time,” [he said of the Olympic rings in 1931](http://theweek.com/articles/451216/what-olympic-rings-mean). However, de Frédy never assigned each color seen in the Olympic rings symbol to a specific continent, leaving that particular detail up for debate. According to [_The Verge_](https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/9/16994638/winter-olympics-2018-intel-drone-show-world-record), Intel’s opening ceremony drones set the record for the “most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously.” Intel’s drones, which were just like the drones Lady Gaga used for her 2016 Super Bowl performance, will reportedly perform each night at the Olympics medal ceremony. Watch a clip of Intel’s opening ceremony drones morph into the five Olympic rings below. > [](https://twitter.com/MyDaughtersArmy/status/961949109077921792) > [](https://twitter.com/MyDaughtersArmy/status/961949109077921792) > [](https://twitter.com/MyDaughtersArmy/status/961949109077921792) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5141718/opening-ceremony-drones-olympic-rings-represent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5141718/opening-ceremony-drones-olympic-rings-represent/"},"headline":"Thousands of Intel Drones Lit Up the Opening Ceremony With the Olympic Rings. 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