coubertin believed that exercise and the practice of sports were vital for the rounded education of men, and drew inspiration from a visit to the ancient olympic arena - proposing to revive the games in 1892,  it took four years to materialize his dream and in 1896, the first modern olympic games were held in athens, greece - it brought together an estimated 280 athletes to competed in 43 events.

since 1896 the games have taken place every four years, except for 1916, 1940, and 1944, when the world was at war - the symbol of the games is five interlocking colored rings, which represent the five continents of the world, and was first introduced at the 1920 antwerp games.

it was in 1920 that brazil first competed in an olympic games, bringing a team of talented athletes to test their abilities against the world's best - brazil has competed in every summer olympic games since antwerp, with a total of 108 medals along the way - they are in the top five percent of medal winning countries.