Modern pentathlon is a sport contested at the Summer Olympic Games.

History

Development as an Olympic sport

Modern pentathlon was created by the founder of the modern Games, Baron

Pierre de Coubertin Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (; born Pierre de Frédy; ...

, and was first contested in 1912. Coubertin was inspired by the pentathlon event in Ancient Olympic Games, which was modeled after the skills of the ideal soldier at the time. Modern pentathlon was also influenced by the tradition of civilian and military multi-sport events in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century. It combined events that were considered to be of upper-class origin like épée fencing,

pistol shooting Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms ( firearms and airguns, in forms suc ...

and riding with more popular ones like

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. The five events making up modern pentathlon are (as of 2021): * épée fencing *200 metre

freestyle swimming Freestyle is a category of Swimming (sport), swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races ar ...

* show jumping with an unfamiliar horse *3 km

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

(as laser pistol shooting in an combined event with running) After more than half a century of relative stability, modern pentathlon has been the subject of numerous changes since the 1980s with its place on the Olympic programme in question several times. Beginning at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, the five components were held on a single day instead of five. The same year, the Men's team competition was dropped from the Olympics. The women's event was first introduced at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. Since the 2008 Summer Olympics, the air-pistol shooting is held during the 3 km run. Since the 2012 Summer Olympics, shooting is done using a laser gun, and running and shooting was combined as one event. Modern pentathlon was still criticized as outdated and lacking popularity in the 2010s. The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

reported in 2013 that the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

was considering dropping it from the Olympics. In response to the criticism, the sport's governing body, the UIPM, made changes to the sport, including by having all five contests held in a single stadium. It was planned for the 2016 Summer Olympics but held for the first time at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. The events of modern pentathlon at the Olympic Games were as follows:

Horse riding

The horse riding event in modern pentathlon has been debated - for different reasons - since the invention of the sport. Coubertin and the organisers of the 1912 Summer Olympics had different views on the availability of horses: Coubertin wanted randomly assigned horses provided by the hosts while the Swedish committee preferred that the competitors bring their own horses. For the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

cross-country riding was changed to show jumping. In November 2021, UIPM announced that show jumping would not be a part of the Olympic modern pentathlon starting from the

2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, also known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28) is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to July 30, 2028, in and around Los Angeles, Cali ...

, which was connected to an incident in the 2020 Games where German women's coach Kim Raisner had punched pentathlete

Annika Schleu Annika Schleu (born 3 April 1990) is a German modern pentathlete. She won the gold medal of the relay event at the 2012 World Championships and 2017 World Championships. She has competed in three Olympic Games, finishing in 26th place in 2012 ...

's horse. In response, 650 pentathletes put their names on a letter criticizing the lack of collaboration with them and asking for UIPM executives to resign, with UIPM stating it will discuss the matter with them.

Events

Modern pentathlon has been on the Olympic program continuously since 1912. A women's event was not included until the 2000 Games.

Medal table

Sources:

Nations and number of national participants

References

*Sandra Heck (2013) Modern Pentathlon at the London 2012 Olympics: Between Traditional Heritage and Modern Changes for Survival, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 30:7, 719-735, *Sandra Heck: Von Spielenden Soldaten und kämpfenden Athleten. Die Genese des Modernen Fünfkampfes. Göttingen: V & R Unipress. 2013, *Heck, Sandra. "Making Debrouillards: the modern pentathlon and the pursuit of completeness." ''Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies'', vol. 19, 2010, p. 139+. ''Gale Academic Onefile'', Accessed 27 Sept. 2019.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Modern Pentathlon At The Summer Olympics Sports at the Summer Olympics Modern pentathlon at multi-sport events