Canadian Olympic stamps Olympics. Rolf Harder, the designer of the Innsbruck Winter Games stamp, studied both Fine Arts and Graphic Arts at the Academy in Hamburg, and worked professionally in that city before coming to Canada in 1955. He has created a graphic design using the official Innsbruck Olympic Symbol combined with a stylized snow crystal. The blue-grey background represents a cold winter sky and serves to dramatize the five bright colours of the Olympic rings. The stamp for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, N. Y., was designed by Clermont Malenfant of Design G, Montreal. Using an action shot of
Olympic Games ceremony I declare open the Rio Olympic Games, celebrating the XXXI Olympiad of the Modern Era". Next, the Olympic flag is carried horizontally (since the 1960 Summer Olympics) into the stadium and hoisted as the Olympic Hymn is played. The Olympic Charter states that the Olympic flag must "fly for the entire duration of the Olympic Games from a flagpole placed in a prominent position in the main stadium". At most games, the flag has been carried into the stadium by prominent athletes of the host nation, but in 2012, it was carried by an international group of athletes and non-athletes