Passage IV

A Poetic Olympics

[1]

During athletic festivals in ancient Greece, great poets were placed alongside champion athletes. This has never been true of the modern Olympic Games. [A] The Olympic literary competition, reintroduced in 1912 in Stockholm and included in the Games for decades, is poorly remembered and rarely missed. The only genuine public excitement for even the very first modern, Olympic literary contest was focused on the scandal surrounding the winning poem. [B]

[2]

French aristocrat Baron Pierre do Coubertin, who in 1896 founded the modern Olympic Games, he insisted that talent in the fine arts was as important as skill in athletics. After years of opposition from officials whom felt that the modern Games should focus solely on athletics, Coubertin implemented fine arts competitions, known as the Pentathlon of Muses, in 1912. [C] For the literary contest, it would submit an unpublished work; Coubertin did not establish a length requirement. After a long deliberation during the literary event’s first year; finally judges named duo George Hohrod and Martin Eschbach as gold medalists for their poem “Ode to Sport.”

[3]

The judges, so impressed by “Ode to Sport” that they called it “the perfect poem,” refused to award either silver or bronze medals to any other literary competitors. Weeks, after the Games had come to an end, the judges attempted to contact Hohrod and Eschbach given that the two had not come forward to receive their medals. The judges discovered that neither author existed. A few years later, Coubertin admitted that he himself had submitted “the perfect poem” pseudonymously. (57)

[4]

The judges argued that they did not know that Coubertin had written “Ode to Sport.” But once Coubertin’s ruse was uncovered, distrust for the already unpopular competition expanded as a result——and the feeling endured. [D] The literary competition was dropped after the 1948 London Games. Many of the winning poems have since vanished, with only their titles remaining. Few literary historians think that much has been lost.