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The Muses Pentathlon
In May 1906, the IOC organized in Paris an international congress, whose topic was the relation between art and sport. One of the issues that concerned  the congress was the connection between art and the Olympic Games. These deliberations resulted in the institution of the Muses Pentathlon, namely a competition among artists, who were awarded medals similar to the ones awarded to the athletes. The categories in which the artists competed were five initially (sculpture, painting, music, literature and architecture), which were later divided into subunits. The works had to be original, their theme had to be related to sport and also they had to be created within the period of four years that constitute an Olympiad, namely the interval between two successive Olympics. An additional rule, by analogy to the rule that applied to the athletes, was that the artists who competed in the Pentathlon should not be professionals.
According to the decisions of the congress the art competitions would be inaugurated during the fourth Olympic Games (London 1908). Because there was not much time left until the beginning of the Olympics, the Pentathlon was not included in the programme of the Games. As a result, the first Pentathlon was organized in the fifth Olympic Games, which were held in Stockholm in 1912. However, its organization came up against serious problems, seeing that many Swedish intellectuals and artists objected to it. They set forth their objections as to the procedure of evaluation of the works of art, the thematic restrictions, but also as to the exclusion of professionals, asserting that art is completely different from sport and that artists have no choice but be professionals.
These objections did not dissuade the IOC or the organizers; so the Muses Pentathlon made its first appearance in the fifth Olympic Games. In this first organization one of the winners was Pierre de Coubertin, who won the gold medal in the category of literature with his poem "Ode to Sport" and with the double pen name G. Hohrod (Germany) and M. Eschach (France). Another winner was Walter Winans from the USA, one of the two athletes in the history of the Olympic Games who became Olympic winner both in the sports games (1908 and 1912 in shooting), and in the art competition (gold medal in sculpture). The second athlete was Alfred Hajos from Hungary, twice gold Olympic winner in swimming (100m and 1500m) in the first modern Olympic Games (1896), who won the silver medal in the category of architecture in the 1924 Paris Olympics.
The Muses Pentathlon was organized six more times, in the Olympic Games of Antwerp (1920), Paris (1924), Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932), Berlin (1936) and London (1948). However, it never acquired the prestige and high level of participation that the sports games had. While the Olympic Games spread from one organization to the other and constituted the major worldwide sports event - a development that became clear in the interwar period - the Muses Pentathlon was unable to constitute an event of equivalent value and range in the field of art. As a result, despite the persistence of several IOC members and the retraction of decisions, the Muses Pentathlon was permanently ceased in 1954.
The reasons that led to failure are associated on the one hand with the restrictions set from the beginning by the IOC with regard to the terms of participation in the Muses Pentathlon and on the other hand with its inability to keep pace with the developments in the various fields of art in the first half of the 20th century. Clinging to amateurism excluded the participation of the most eminent artists. Adhering to a "Europe-centred classicism" created a gap between the Muses Pentathlon and the new trends in art, which brought about changes in style and aesthetics. It is characteristic that only a few important artists participated in it and their participation was limited to the role of judge. Such was the case of Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinki and Bela Bartok in 1924 in Paris. In general, very few of the works that won a prize were acclaimed outside the context of the Olympic Games, whereas in many cases there were no prizes awarded. For example, in 1912, apart from music and sculpture, there were no winners in the other three categories. During the seven organizations, in which the Muses Pentathlon was included, 21 gold medals, 13 silvers and 20 bronzes were awarded, that is a total of 54, which correspond approximately to 27% of the medals that could have been awarded.
The unreliability and decline of the institution was illustrative in the organization of 1948, which was the last, seeing that there were no entries from countries, such as the USA, that were in the centre of the artistic developments. Even more representative was the case of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, which did not succeed in organizing the Pentathlon. Prior to the Olympics, the IOC had decided the abolition of the institution in 1949 and had retracted this decision in 1951. Lastly, in 1952 in Helsinki only a few art events were organized, whereas in 1954 the IOC decided to cease permanently the Muses Pentathlon and organize an Art Festival, which was inaugurated in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
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