Fast forward another 23 centuries, and Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, dreamed of a similar marriage of sport and arts. A true renaissance man who was equally at home in the opera house as on a rugby field, de Coubertin had already overseen the first two outings of his new Olympics\u00a0 \u2013 in Athens (1896) and Paris (1900). <\/p> His next move was to suggest that the games should embrace cultural activities too. He set out his ideas in an article in Le Figaro<\/em> in 1904 and then at a conference in Paris two years later. De Coubertin’s plans for an accompanying pan-artistic celebration of sport effectively paved the way for the increasingly spectacular opening and closing ceremonies that would be a feature of Games to come. However, he wanted more \u2013 namely to integrate the arts into the competition itself. From a musical point of view his wish has, to some extent, been fulfilled over the years, though not always in ways that he might have expected\u2026<\/p> Stay with us as we run through the 11 most memorable musical Olympics.<\/p> The run-up to the 1908 Olympics was a chaotic affair. That year\u2019s Games should have been in Rome but, following a catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, the Italian government decided to direct its resources elsewhere. And so, as London stepped in with just two years to prepare, the introduction and organisation of five new competitive arts events \u2013 architecture, painting, sculpture, literature and music composition \u2013 was always going to be a battle against the clock. <\/p> Charles Villiers Stanford<\/a><\/strong> was put in charge of formatting the music composition event but soon realised, as did his colleagues in charge of the other four disciplines, that he had an impossible job on his hands. Instead, suggested the composer, why not have a choral competition? <\/p> This might be a more practical option, not least as singing had been strongly advocated at the 1906 Paris conference as an important aid to physical health. His idea was, alas, rejected and London 1908 went ahead arts competition-free, but by the time of the Stockholm Games in 1912, all five events were ready to take their place in the schedule.<\/p> Though launched with the best intentions, the musical composition event at the Olympics was hardly a roaring success. Faced with a patchy level of entries, the judges rarely elected to award all three medals, and in 1924 left the podium totally empty. Of those who did win medals over the years, only one was a well-known name, when Josef Suk (one of our ten best Czech composers<\/a><\/strong>) took silver at Los Angeles in 1932 (no gold or bronze was awarded that year). <\/p> And even then, the Czech composer\u2019s Towards a New Life<\/em> was not written specially for the occasion, but was simply a rehash of a patriotic march composed for the Czech army back in 1919. In 1936, the music composition event was split into three categories \u2013 orchestral, instrumental and vocal\/choral \u2013 with the whole lot being jettisoned just one Olympics later, in 1948.<\/p> For the 1924 Olympics in Paris, the playing of national anthems as winners collected their medals was introduced. The stipulation that no anthem could be longer than 80 seconds, however, meant that for a number of countries some nifty editing had to be done first. The nine Brits to enjoy a gold medal-earned \u2018God save the King\u2019 included 100m sprinter Harold Abrahams, though the evidence suggests he would have preferred a little Gilbert and Sullivan<\/a><\/strong> as he stood on the podium. <\/p> You see, when (57 years later) Abrahams\u2019s exploits were celebrated in the film Chariots of Fire<\/em>, his portrayed infatuation with G&S was by no means a case of artistic licence \u2013 in real life, he\u2019d go on to marry the D\u2019Oyly Carte Opera Company singer Sybil Evers, and in 1959 chose The<\/em> Yeomen of the Guard<\/em> Overture as his favourite track on BBC Radio\u2019s Desert Island Discs<\/em>.<\/p> Skier Vanessa Vanakorn could only ever dream of grabbing a medal in the giant slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. As it was, she came 67th, last out of all those who successfully made it down the course twice and some 50 seconds behind the winner. Nonetheless, even that was no little achievement for Vanakorn, whom most people knew better as the British-Singaporean violinist Vanessa-Mae<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p> Having racked up a fortune from a young age with recordings ranging from Beethoven<\/a><\/strong> to Donna Summer, Mae revealed in her 30s that her next big ambition was to represent Thailand, her father\u2019s birth country, on the snowy slopes. And, with Olympic rules allowing every country to enter at least one competitor into the giant slalom, Thailand\u2019s lack of skiers of note afforded her a clear path to doing so. \u2018With my limited experience at my age I\u2019m happy I made it down,\u2019 she reflected afterwards. \u2018It was kind of rock and roll because I nearly crashed out three times.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p> \u2018I am whiling away the boredom of the advent season by composing an Olympic Hymn<\/em> for the plebs \u2013 I of all people, who hate and despise sports.\u2019 These were the words of Richard Strauss<\/a><\/strong>, the least likely of all composers to have had a connection with the Olympics. Perhaps even more surprising was that he was there in person to conduct the work at the Olympics opening ceremony in Berlin on 1 August 1936. Astonishing, really, as only the year before he had been unceremoniously sacked as president of the Reich Chamber of Musicians for criticising the Nazi regime. <\/p> One suspects he was deemed simply too prestigious a part of Hitler\u2019s notorious Olympic showcase to be omitted. He certainly gave himself plenty to play with, scoring his Olympic Hymn <\/em>for huge choral and orchestral forces including \u2018four trumpets, multiplied by four if possible\u2026\u2019.<\/p> By the way, we were interested but not totally surprised to see Strauss’s name cropping up a lot when we asked orchestral musicians to name their favourite pieces to perform<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p> A different Strauss \u2013 Johann II \u2013 was partly to thank for bringing a little Olympic glory to Czechoslovakia in Melbourne in 1956. When, only two years earlier, Olga Fikotov\u00e1 took up the discus at university in Prague, veteran coach Otakar Jandera not only saw the potential of the 5’11” athlete but also worked out a canny way of helping her develop the sense of rhythm needed to spin effectively in the circle before throwing. <\/p> \u2018He started off by playing the Blue Danube<\/em> over and over again on the stadium loudspeakers and had me making turns,\u2019 remembered Fikotov\u00e1 later. Masterful, though surely not even Jandera could have possibly foreseen his rookie athlete winning the gold medal with a new Olympic record within such a short space of time.<\/p>Greatest Olympic musical moments <\/h2>
11. 1908: Win when you\u2019re singing<\/strong><\/h3>
10. 1932: A major blow for Suk<\/strong><\/h3>
9. 1924:\u00a0Fired up by G&S<\/strong><\/h3>
![\"Sprinter](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/GettyImages56765256_cmyk.jpg\")
8. 2014: From bow to snow<\/strong><\/h3>
7. 1936: Strauss\u2019s podium odium<\/strong><\/h3>
More greatest Olympic musical moments<\/h2>
6. 1956: A revolutionary approach<\/strong><\/h3>