Coubertin y los concursos artísticos en los Juegos Olímpicos modernos / Coubertin and the Artistic Competitions in the Modern Olympic Games

The aim of this essay is to analyse the importance that Coubertin gave to including the artistic competitions in the official programme of the modern Olympic Games. It will be studied how, when and why Coubertin's idea of harmoniously joining arts and letters to the Olympic Games appeared, as it had already happened in ancient Olympia. In the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912, sport and artistic competitions were celebrated for the first time, fulfilling thus Coubertin's longing. However, after seven Olympic events where artistic competitions had been held, the IOC decided to eliminate them in 1949 and to replace them for "Cultural Olympics", "exhibitions" or "expositions". The methodology of this study is historical and based on primary and secondary sources. In conclusion, to Coubertin the artistic competitions in the modern Olympic Games were so important as to have the same status as the sport competitions.