In May 1906 Pierre de Coubertin, the man largely responsible for creating the modern Olympics, called a special conference in Paris. Its purpose, he said, was “to reunite the Muscles and the Mind, once divorced, in the bonds of a legitimate marriage.” The outcome of the meeting was a decision to introduce Olympic competitions in the arts. Coubertin was to say that “deprived of the aura of the arts contests, Olympic Games are only world championships” – in which he said he would have no interest. What he wanted was ‘Olympism’, which brought sports and art together in a ‘religion of energy’. This programme explores what he meant by this, and looks at how difficult and controversial the arts competitions turned out to be.

The main problem was the reluctance of significant artists to enter their work – which had in some way to be about sport, and which had to be created specifically for the Olympic contests. The list of artistic medallists throws up very few well-known names. In 1912, for example, the music gold went to the Italian Ricardo Barthelemy, and the literature contest was won by Coubertin himself! British winners over the years include the painters Laura Knight and William Nicholson, while the best-known composer to win anything was Josef Suk. But if the great and the good of the arts world wouldn’t compete, they were certainly prepared to sit in judgement on those who did. The music jury at the Paris Games of 1924 included Bartok, Honneger, Dukas and Stravinsky. Edith Wharton assessed the literature entries. Needless to say the Games which took the arts competitions most seriously were those of Berlin in 1936. The Olympics were tailor-made for the propagation of a fascist aesthetic.

But it wasn’t their lack of quality that killed off the arts competitions. It was the American Avery Brundage, who became IOC president in 1952. He saw himself as a crusader against professionalism – and artists were an easy target.