The New York Times examines it, here.
From the article...
Yet the relationship between poetry and the Olympics goes back to the
very origins of the Games. In ancient Greece, literary events were an
indispensable part of athletic festivals, where fully clothed writers
could be as popular with the crowd as the buff athletes who strutted
about in the nude, gleaming with olive oil. Spectators packing the
sanctuary of Zeus sought perfection in both body and mind. Champion
athletes commissioned great poets like Pindar to compose their victory
odes, which were sung at lavish banquets by choruses of boys. (The
refined cultural ambience could put contemporary opening ceremonies,
with their parade of pop stars, to shame.) Philosophers and historians
introduced cutting-edge work, while lesser-known poets set up stalls or
orated from soapboxes.
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