A closer look
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, insisted that the games should feature competitions in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture, which were official medal events from 1912 to 1948. Athletes of the canvas actually won gold medals for urban planning and epic poetry as long as their works were explicitly inspired by sports. You have to admire an era where a guy could literally become an Olympic champion by sitting in a comfortable chair and aggressively painting a picture of someone else doing actual physical labor, making it the absolute pinnacle of unathletic achievement disguised as sporting glory
