American historian Robert Barney explains that the idea of the interlaced rings came to Pierre de Coubertin when he was in charge of the USFSA (Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques). The Union’s emblem was two interlaced rings, like the vesica piscis symbol (literally meaning “bladder of a fish" in Latin, and traditionally used to symbolize the marriage rings). Originally the idea of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who believed that the ring symbolized continuity and the human being.