Olympic art competitions

Olympic art competitions were held at the Summer Olympic Games from 1912 to 1948, with medals awarded for architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. Works had to be inspired by sport.^[1] For nearly forty years, an athlete could win an Olympic medal without ever leaving the studio, and occasionally without the paint being dry.

Medal winners

At the first competition, in Stockholm in 1912, the gold medal for literature went to an “Ode to Sport” entered under two pen names, Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach. It was later revealed to be the work of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games.^[2] He is the only person to have founded the Olympics and then won a medal at them under a false name.

The American Walter Winans won Olympic medals in both sport and art: gold in shooting in 1908 and gold in sculpture in 1912, for a statuette of a horse.

Why it ended

The competitions were dropped after the 1948 London Games. One of the main reasons was that most of the artists were professionals, while the Olympics at the time were meant to be for amateurs only. Art exhibitions continued alongside the Games, but without medals.

• Architecture: medals.
• Literature: medals.
• Music: medals (though gold was rarely awarded).
• Sculpture: medals, including for a horse.
• Painting: medals.

See also

• Piano – a possible music entry
• Horse – subject of a gold medal statuette
• Printing press – for printing the poetry
• Tug of war – another former Olympic event

References

1. Hohrod, G. (1912/2004). An Ode, Under a Different Name. Fictional reprint.
2. Plinth, P. (2010). “Gold for a Horse”. Sport and Art Quarterly 1912: 1.
3. Amateur, A. (1949). Paid Too Much to Compete. Stadium Press.