Modern pentathlon

The modern pentathlon is an Olympic sport consisting of fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running. The event was first held in 1912, inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the ancient Olympics, and designed to model skills needed by a soldier of that time. As well as being an Olympic event, a world championships has been held annually since 1949.

The rules of the modern pentathlon have changed several times since its creation over the years, including condensing the event down into a single day. The latest structure, as of the 2024 Olympics, consists of separate events for fencing, swimming, and equestrian, which earn the athletes points to determine each athlete's starting time in the final event. The last event, called the laser-run, alternates four legs of laser pistol shooting and running.

Modern pentathlon's inclusion in the Olympics has frequently been criticised for being obscure, unpopular, and complex. The 2028 Olympics initially removed modern pentathlon from its events, but has been reinstated with a changed format where obstacle racing replaces the equestrian event.

The governing body, Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), administers the international sport in more than 90 countries.

Format
The format of the modern pentathlon has changed frequently through the sport's history. Described below is the format that will be used in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris:


 * Fencing, ranking round: In the first round of the fencing, every athlete faces every other athlete in one-on-one fencing bouts. Bouts use an electric epee with the target being the whole body, and end after one hit, though if neither athlete scores a hit within one minute the bout ends with both registering a defeat. Athletes that win 70 percent of their bouts score 250 points; each win above is worth 5 more points, each below is 5 points less.
 * Riding: Athletes attempt a show-jumping course with 12 obstacles. Athletes do not bring a horse to the event; they are assigned an unfamiliar horse and have 20 minutes to practice with the animal. Completing the course scores 300 points with points deducted for penalties and for taking longer than a set time limit for the course.
 * Swimming: This is a single 200 meter freestyle swim. A time of 2 minutes 30 seconds scores 250 points; each second faster than that earns 2 points and each second below loses 2 points.
 * Fencing, bonus round: In the second round of fencing, athletes are ordered based on the first round's results. The last-place athlete goes against the next-placed athlete. The winner receives two bonus points and advance to compete against the next best-ranked athlete; the loser is eliminated from this round of fencing (for double-defeats, the winner of the bout is the athlete who was higher-ranked going into the round). This continues until all but one athlete is eliminated. (The athlete who enters this round in the top of the fencing order can only have one bout; they win four points if they win that bout.)
 * Combined running and shooting: At this final event, athletes' starting times are determined by their total scores from the first three events, so that the highest scorer starts first, and each successive athlete then starts with a delay of one second for each point by which they trail the leader. Athletes run 3000 meters, stopping at four locations to shoot at targets with a laser pistol. Each round, they must remain at the target until scoring five hits (with an unlimited number of shots) or until 50 seconds have elapsed. Final placement in the overall modern pentathlon is determined by order across the finish line.

Creation
Most sources state that the creator of the modern pentathlon was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. However, researcher Sandra Heck concluded that Viktor Balck, the President of the Organizing Committee for the 1912 Games, made use of the long tradition of Swedish military multi-sports events to create the modern pentathlon. In addition, in the Olympic games of the year 1912, athletes from countries on all continents competed.

The name derives from the Greek péntathlon "contest of five events". The addition of modern to the name distinguishes it from the original pentathlon of the ancient Olympic Games, which consisted of the stadion foot race, wrestling, long jump, javelin, and discus. And the location of the first Olympic Games was Olympia during 776 BCE. As the events of the ancient pentathlon were modeled after the skills of the ideal soldier to defend a fortification of that time, Coubertin created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th-century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight enemies with pistol and sword, swim, and run to return to his own soldiers. Originally, only amateur competitors, i.e. upper-class cavalry officers, were allowed to compete in the modern pentathlon at the Olympics. Specifically, for a decade after the year 1890, athletic competitions for amateurs began to develop in many different places. In the 1912 Games, as only amateur officers competed, the competitors were permitted to use their own horses. Up to the 1952 Olympics the ordinary cavalry soldier was considered a professional athlete, as he was riding and training horses for a living, and as such unable to participate, while the officer was considered the amateur and therefore allowed to compete.

Olympic Games
The event was first held at the 1912 Olympic Games and has been on the Olympic program continuously since 1912. Modern pentathlon, despite its long Olympic history, has had to justify its inclusion in the modern Olympic Games several times. On February 11, 2013, in Lausanne, the IOC confirmed modern pentathlon once again as one of the 25 core sports of the Olympic program through to 2020.

A team event was added to the Olympic Games in 1952 and discontinued in 1992. In 1997, the United States was given a gold medal for a winning a competition in an event of the modern pentathlon. An event for women was added to the Olympic Games in 2000. There was a gold medal award given to Britain during the Olympics of the year 2006 in Athens, Greece.

Originally, the competition took place over four or five days. In 1996, a one-day format was adopted in an effort to be more audience-friendly. The switch to a one-day format was criticised for changing the steady character of modern pentathlon to a more fast-paced competition. To enhance the experience for spectators, the UIPM proposed that all five events should be held in a single venue. This was planned for the 2016 Summer Olympics but held for the first time at the 2020 Summer Olympics. For the 2024 Summer Olympics, a condensed format of 90 minutes with eliminations is planned. The initial program for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles does not include the modern pentathlon while the sport finalises its replacement of showjumping, but it could be added at a later date. Modern pentathlon is also part of the Youth Olympic Games since 2010.

Modern pentathlon's inclusion in the Summer Olympics has frequently been criticised for being obscure, unpopular, and complex, especially as the IOC limits each Summer Olympics to 28 disciplines.

Governance
As long as there was no official international federation for Modern Pentathlon an IOC committee was set up for the sport making use of the expertise of IOC members. The governing body, Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) was founded in 1948.

International competitions
A world championship has been held every year since 1949. The competitions include men and women's individual and team events together with relay events for men and women and, since 2010, a mixed relay event. After much lobby work of the president of the German Modern Pentathlon Federation, Wilhelm Henze, women were for the first time admitted at the world championships in 1977, and at the official world championships in 1981.

The Modern Pentathlon World Cup is an annual series of modern pentathlon competitions. It was first held in 1999.

Format changes over time
Modern pentathlon has been the subject of numerous changes since its creation.

Fencing
In 2015 — and for the first time in the 2016 Summer Olympics — a system of an additional bonus round was added to épée fencing in international competitions. Before that, there was only the round-robin format.

Swimming
Until the 2000 Olympics, the distance for swimming was 300 metres; at that time it was changed to 200 metres.

Riding
The distance of the cross-country riding event was reduced from 5 km to 4 km in 1972. For the 1988 Summer Olympics cross-country riding was changed to show jumping.

Shooting and running
From 1912 to 1988 regular pistols or later sport pistols were used for shooting. From 1989 until 2009, the shooting discipline involved firing a 4.5 mm (.177 cal) air pistol in the standing position from 10 metres distance at a stationary target. The format was that of the 10 metre air pistol competition: each competitor had 20 shots, with 40 seconds allowed for each shot. Beginning with the World Cup events in 2011, laser pistols were used instead of pistols with actual projectiles. There is a slight delay between the trigger pull and the laser firing, simulating the time it would take for a pellet to clear the muzzle. Air pistols with laser transmitters were introduced during the transitional period and are still in use. Purpose-built laser pistols are developed and commonly used since the middle of the 2010s. Laser pistols and targets have to be certified by the UIPM.

Until the 2000 Olympics, the running distance was 4 kilometres. The running discipline was shortened to a 3 km cross-country run afterwards.

In 2009, the running and shooting events were combined into three 1000 m laps with each preceded by laser shooting at five targets in 70 seconds or less. From the start of the 2013 season, the laser-run was changed to consist of four 800 m laps (increasing the distance to 3.2 kilometres) each preceded by laser shooting at five targets in 50 seconds or less. This change was intended to restore some of the importance of the shooting skill felt to have been lost in the original 2009 combined event.

The laser-run has been criticized as altering too radically the nature of the skills required. The New York Times asked whether the name ought to be changed to "tetrathlon" given that two of the five disciplines had been combined into a single event.

Overall scoring and operation
Scoring was originally done by a points-for-place system with the lowest score winning. Since the 1954 World Cup points tables are used for each of the five events and points are added for the final score. This scoring was first used in the 1956 Summer Olympics. The five disciplines were held on a single day — instead of four to six — from the 1996 Summer Olympics onwards. In the 2024 Olympics, the event – other than the fencing ranking round – will all take place within 90 minutes.

Replacement of riding with obstacle course racing
The riding discipline attracted criticism during the 2020 Summer Olympics after multiple athletes in the women's event struggled to control their randomly-assigned horses. This culminated in the German team's coach, Kim Raisner, being removed from the event after striking a horse with her fist. Following the Games, in November 2021 it was reported that the UIPM was opening consultations on the proposed replacement of riding with another discipline. The decision was ratified during the UIPM's Congress on 27 November 2021, with the changes intended to be implemented for the 2028 Summer Olympics. The UIPM voted for the change without consulting athletes, claiming force majeure.

The decision was met with criticism from various athletes and bodies, who considered riding to be integral to modern pentathlon. Some also accused the UIPM of hindering debate in favor of riding during the congress. More than 650 modern pentathletes signed a letter calling for the UIPM executive board to resign in November 2021. A group known as "Pentathlon United" called for the IOC to investigate the UIPM's governance, and proposed a plan to maintain riding with rule changes to bring them in line with those of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), and a focus on animal welfare.

In May 2022, the UIPM announced it would hold an obstacle racing test event alongside the 2022 Modern Pentathlon World Cup final in Ankara, citing that it had received the most support out of the over 60 disciplines proposed, was more cost-effective, would help make the event more attractive to a younger audience, and was "compatible with the DNA of modern pentathlon". The competition course was developed with input from World Obstacle, and the event featured a mix of athletes from both the obstacle racing and modern pentathlon communities. The UIPM also entered into a collaboration agreement with Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) to use a Ninja Warrior obstacle course.

On 9 July 2022, Pentathlon United shared a survey of 213 responses from 40 countries, with 68.5% being current athletes, that indicated more than 92% of current modern pentathlon participants wanted to preserve the equestrian discipline as part of the sport. The group stated, "A total of 74.18% chose the reformed version of equestrian, which puts horse welfare among the central themes, while concern over the cost and accessibility of the equestrian discipline is also acknowledged in the 16-point plan." Of those polled, only athletes from the United Kingdom showed any support for an obstacle race, with athletes from the United States overwhelmingly voting for a reformed version of equestrian sport.

In November 2022, the UIPM Congress voted 69–11 in favor of replacing riding with obstacle course racing; an associated motion established that the changes would take effect for junior competition in 2023. Its implementation at the senior level is unlikely to occur until after the 2024 Summer Olympics.

On 22 June 2023, the UIPM shared a poll of 1,500 Americans by YouGov that they commissioned in support of their decision to replace riding with obstacle course racing, citing that the survey showed that "45% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials more likely to watch the Olympics on television if it featured a ninja-style obstacle race...taken as a percentage of the U.S. population, this would equate to nearly 45 million more people watching the Games". The UIPM also stated, "More than two-thirds (37%) of survey respondents said they would be more likely to watch the new-look Modern Pentathlon at the Olympic Games, and 46% of those cited enjoying ninja-style obstacle races as the reason, with 34% describing the reason for their answer: 'I think the Modern Pentathlon needs to embrace change'." The article also indirectly referenced the popular TV show American Ninja Warrior.