Exploring when art was an Olympic sport (we’re not joking)

Olympic art is medal worthy, plus Parisian lessons for Brisbane 2032.

Yes, it’s true. There was a time when artists and sculptors were placed on equal footing alongside sportspeople, and competed in the Olympics.

And, we are not talking about gladiator times – although sculpture and literature was a key part of the original Greek Games.

It was, however, with the revival of the modern Olympics, led by Parisian, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, that art got a second look-in. It was a hard-fought battle – worthy of gold itself – but in 1912 arts got across the line, with the first medals awarded.  

The trend bubbled up and lasted for 36 years (1912-1948), or nine editions of the seasonal competition. But the initiative was plagued by problems and, in particular, judging controversies.

Today, creative input is largely relegated to the opening and closing ceremonies, which are often more about a big-buck splash by event producers cashing in on “culture”.

There is also the Cultural Olympiad, which runs parallel to the main event, but that is largely a corralling of activities hosted by individual organisations under a program banner. Some countries do it better than others, and others don’t find value in it at all.

So, let’s take a look at the learnings from this collective history.

Olympic art: how did it start?

In Ancient Greece, art and sport were considered complementary practices. When Coubertin co-founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and revived the Olympics in the 1890s, he felt it was essential to return to those values. But it took a lot of convincing. Finally, in 1912 for the Swedish Olympics, artists, sculptors, musicians, writers and architects entered the fray and competed for their own chance at the podium for bronze, silver and gold medals.

Why art was axed

In 1949 – 12 years after Coubertin’s death – the IOC suspended art as an Olympic category on the grounds that the majority of the entrants earned money from their work. It was a crazy twist in circumstances, if you compare what artists earn today to that of elite sportspeople.

It is documented that the committee said that their earnings placed artists in the category of “professionals” and hence were ineligible to compete.

In many ways, the practice was doomed from the start. The Olympic Art Competition (Concours d’Art) didn’t attract a lot of contenders and the awards were typically skewed to the hosting country, where the judges were based. But we have learned a lot since the 1920s about equity and transparency in the art world and – with thousands of art prizes in Australia each year turning to ethical practices – such exclusion for art is baseless today.

The sad part of this outcome is that the 151 medals that had been awarded were struck from the tallies of the Olympic nations, and redacted and removed from the history records entirely. Clearly, the marriage had ended in bitter divorce.

Perhaps the only solid remnant of that glory time is the Gold Medal-winning work of the Greek artist Konstantinos Dimitriadis. He was awarded in 1924 for his sculpture Discobole Finlandais – yes, another Discus Thrower – which was positioned in New York’s Central Park outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art two years later. Earlier this year it was restored and relocated to Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island.

The only creative competition that remains today is perhaps the commissioning of architects and graphic designers for the event. And, of course, with the Paris-led addition of breakdancing as an official competitive sport this year, there may be hope yet?

Read: Literary Olympics: what wordsmith events would be on the program?

Lessons for future editions

France’s Cultural Olympiad has picked up the Baron’s legacy with renewed zeal – what some may call “Olympic fever”, with over 2400 events throughout France and 663 in the capital alone!

An estimated 15 million visitors are expected to visit Paris during the Olympics this month, and they will want to engage with the city, when not attending sporting events. There is one hiccup for many of them – the calendar is only in French; however, you can find events through an interactive map.  

Information and pathfinding are key – and if you want culture to be “sticky” as a go-to during the Olympics, tourists need to be able to search and book with ease. Take note, Milan 2026, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032, as it now start to planning for their editions

Unsurprisingly, many of Paris’ grand museums are currently showing sports-related exhibitions. A couple of the big ones are: Olympism: Modern Invention, Ancient Legacy at the Louvre – connecting the dots from Paris 2024 back to the classical Greece games that endured for more than 1000 years, and also the Fondation Louis Vuitton (housed in a Frank Gehry-designed building) exhibition The Collection, Rendez-Vous Avec Le Sport, which takes the counter contemporary position with artists Abraham Poincheval, Andreas Gursky, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Omar Victor Diop and Roman Signer.

Another good lesson from Paris is the pairing up of cultural events, such as the Louvre and Orsay combo ticket.

Many of Paris’ museums are able to draw on deep collection holdings to curate themed exhibitions such as the Petite Palace and Musée Marmottan Monet, for example, where artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas offer their take on sport.

In Australia, we don’t have such holdings on “the benches” waiting for their turn in the arena. And yet, as a sporting nation, the worlds of art and sport have often come together in a multidisciplinary way. This places Brisbane in a good position to offer a program that could offer a more refreshing take.

Read: Art and sport: is there really a divide?

A great example of the less historical, more lateral approach is a quirky piece of programming – the Louvre Museum’s in-gallery led exercise programs before opening to its 30,000 daily visitors – which have been booked out for months leading in to the Olympics.

Musée du Louvre’s Olympic program promotion. YouTube.

On offer have been yoga under I M Pei’s iconic glass-pyramid entrance and a unique running event called Courez au Louvre, which has seen Lycra-clad art fans running through the hallowed halls of the world’s most famous museum.

Writing for the BBC, Tony Perrottet said the experience reminded him of ‘a scene in New Wave cinema, Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande à Part (Band of Outsiders) from 1964, where three young friends race madly through its galleries’.

‘As we jogged between the four dance stations, our instructor encouraged us to let out yells and whoops, which echoed through the eerily empty corridors,’ wrote Perrottet.

This is the stuff of memory making on a par with the torch ceremony or a record-breaking win. Sure, the case for creative medals may be long lost, but with a contemporary zeal for immersive and genuine experiences, the arts and culture are well poised to make an impact during an Olympic season.

The reality is that Olympic organising committees are big, bureaucratic machines charged with high national hopes to deliver. The timelines are long and the budgets are big. If we want to present our version of the games in 2032 that matches Baron de Coubertin’s vision of a meeting of “muscle and mind”, the arts sector needs to corral and conquer now to ensure it is sitting at the table from the beginning.

The Paris 2024 Olympics opens Friday 26 July and runs until Sunday 11 August.

Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina