LAUREN GILGER: Okay, so Sam, have you been watching the Olympics this week? Any favorite events?
SAM DINGMAN: Yes, I don't know what this says about me, but I’m partial to the ones that remind me of college. So I'm really into badminton and table tennis.
GILGER: That's awesome. But here's one for you: did you know that poetry used to be an Olympic sport?
DINGMAN: Woah! Speaking of college. I did not know that.
GILGER: It’s true! Between 1912 and 1952 the Olympics included an arts competition known as the “Pentathlon of the Muses” and medals were awarded for music, literature, poetry, even architecture — but the submissions had to have some direct connection with “sport.”
DINGMAN: "Pentathlon of the Muses."
GILGER: So good, right?
DINGMAN: Sounds like a Jethro Tull album. Let me ask you Lauren, have you ever written a poem about your favorite sport? Perhaps a haiku about running? Or an ode to the pommel horse? Fencing limerick?
GILGER: Man, I wish, but no, I have not. If I were in Paris this week, I might be moved to poetry. It's so beautiful there. I’ll give it some thought the next time I'm at my kids’ soccer game
