The motto is a short slogan designed to give a flavour of the host city of an Olympic Games.

The official Olympic motto is 'faster, higher, stronger' and was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin, upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894.

It was subsequently adopted at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, however since 1988 every Summer Olympic Games has adopted its own motto.

The first Olympics to adopt a motto was Munich 1972 which used the phrase 'The Happy Games.'

The motto has been a regular feature since Seoul 1988 which used the phrase 'Harmony and Progress.'

Subsequent mottos have been 'Friends for Life' at Barcelona 1992, 'The Celebration of the Century' at Atlanta 1996, 'Share the Spirit - Dare to Dream' at Sydney 2000, 'Welcome Home' at Athens 2004, 'One World, One Dream' at Beijing 2008, 'Inspire a Generation' at London 2012 and 'A New World' at Rio 2016.