The

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

are an international multi-sport event featuring both summer and winter sports, held every two years with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. During Olympic Games closing ceremonies, the sitting president of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) received the flag from the current mayor of the current host city to the current mayor of the next host city. The current

Olympic Charter The Olympic Charter is a set of rules and guidelines for the organisation of the Olympic Games, and for governing the Olympic movement. Its last revision was on the 17th of July 2020 during the 136th IOC Session, held by video conference. Adop ...

requires this person to be the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of the next host city, although this has not always been the case. This article lists the people who have had the ceremonial duty to pass the Olympic flag from one to another for them to keep until the closing ceremony of each games.

Closing ceremony

The IOC factsheet on the closing ceremony states: "The mayors of the current host city and next host city join the IOC President. The mayor of the host city hands the flag to the IOC President, who hands it on to the mayor of the next host city."IOC Factsheet
The Olympic Charter sets out the exact drill that the flag are to be handed by the mayor of the current host city to the another of the next host city. Three flags were used at the Summer Olympics, the first called the Antwerp flag that was used from 1920 to 1984 when it showed signs of wear. The second is called the Seoul flag that was used from 1988 to 2012. In 2016, the Seoul flag was replaced by the Rio flag, which symbolizes the first edition of the Games that was held in South America. In the Winter Games, the flag used is the PyeongChang flag, which was first used in 2018 to symbolize the first edition of the Winter Games held in mainland Asia. It replaced the Oslo flag that was used from 1952 to 2014. In some editions, a replica of it was used for conservation reasons. In the Summer Youth Olympic Games, the Singapore flag has been used since 2010, while in the Winter Youth Olympic Games, the Innsbruck flag is used. Also for conservation reasons, replicas are used. With 5 years of keeping the Olympic flag for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, governor

Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned to ...

is the longest keeper of the flag. With 2 years of keeping the Olympic flag for the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, mayor

Audun Tron Audun Tron (born 7 March 1945) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. From 1987 to 1999, Tron was the mayor of Lillehammer. As such he played a role in the 1994 Winter Olympics. During the first cabinet Stoltenberg, from 2000 to 2001, ...

is the shortest keeper of the flag.

Keeper of the Summer Olympic flag

Keepers of the Winter Olympic flag

Keepers of the Summer Youth Olympic flag

Keepers of the Winter Youth Olympic flag

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:People who have kept the Olympic flag

people A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

Olympics closing ceremonies

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...