Arts being an Olympic sport? Did you know the original vision for the Olympics included the arts?
The first modern Olympic games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. The revival of this international competition is credited to Baron Pierre de Coubertin. His vision was to link sport and culture and promote a sense of peace and goodwill throughout the world.
The logistics of coordinating with multiple countries to revive an ancient competition proved challenging, and Pierre was unable to convince others of the need to include the arts during the first several games. He persisted and eventually succeeded in his vision to have sport and art together and of equal importance. During the 1912 Olympic games, art competition made its debut. Medals were awarded in five categories, architecture, music, painting, sculpture and literature with each entry being required to relate to sport. These five events were known as the “pentathlon of the muses.”
Over the next four decades, a total of 151 Olympic medals were awarded in the category of fine arts. Pierre de Coubertin entered the literature competition himself in the 1912 Olympics under a pseudonym and won. American Walter Winans was the only individual to win gold medals in both an athletic event and an artistic event. He won gold in sharpshooting in the 1908 games and silver in the 1912 games. In addition to his silver medal for sharpshooting in 1912, he also took home the gold in sculpture for a bronze cast of a horse pulling a chariot. In 1948 British man John Copley won a silver medal in engravings and etchings at the age of 73. If his record still counted it would make him the oldest Olympic medalist.
Since many of the art competition entries were submitted by professionals, the pentathlon of the muses was removed from the Olympics in 1948 during a strong push to ensure all entrants in all competitions were amateurs. Art medals were officially struck from the Olympic record.
The baron’s vision to join art and sport lives on however. The medal events were replaced with a noncompetitive art and culture exhibition at each game, and in 2004, art competition returned to the Olympics though not as official medal events.
Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy or to stump your in-laws.
