TOKYO (AP) — Tick tock, tick tock. The Tokyo Olympic clock has hit 500 days to go.
Organizers marked the milestone on Tuesday, unveiling the stylized pictogram figures for next year’s Tokyo Olympics. The pictogram system was first used extensively in 1964 when the Japanese capital lasted hosted the Summer Olympics — just 19 years after the end of World War II.
A picture system to illustrate sports events was used in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and 12 years later in London. Other Olympics sporadically used some drawings for the same purpose.
But the ’64 Olympics originated the standardized symbols that have become familiar in every Olympics since then.