I don't know how many people know that the Olympic Games were once more than just sports, and that the athletes were not limited to athletes. From 1912 to 1948, art was also an official part of the Olympic Games, and the Olympic Games officially awarded 151 medals to these "participants".
The criteria for participation in the Art Olympics at that time were that the work had to be inspired by sports and adhere to the Olympic spirit, and it had to be original.
At the 5th Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912, there were five Olympic art competitions: architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. The first Olympic sculpture gold medal was won by United States Walter Winans for "American Trotter".
Although an artist, the United States dude also had good athletic nerves, winning the gold medal in shooting at the 1908 London Olympics, becoming the first double champion in art and sports.
Later, due to the increasing number of artists participating in the competition, the art competition items were further subdivided into classical, watercolor painting, drawing, and literature, poetry, prose and drama, etc., and left many classic works.
It was not until 1949 that the Olympic Committee decided to suspend the art competition for two reasons. First, the art discipline is too subjective, and everyone's aesthetics are different and the judging criteria are also different, which has caused many controversies.
The second is that there were too many professional artists participating in the Olympic Games, which was not in line with the "amateur principle" of the Olympic Games at that time, and it would be too unfair to other competitors if the world's top artists such as Picasso and Matisse also participated in the Olympic Games.