Discipline's origin

   Modern pentathlon was devised by the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin (second president of the International Olympic Committee). He envisioned a competition that would determine the greatest all-around sportsman, similar to the pentathlon of the ancient Olympic Games. In Aristotle's words: "The most perfect sportsmen, therefore, are the pentathletes because in their bodies strength and speed are combined in beautiful harmony."

   The modern pentathlon consists of shooting, fencing, swimming, riding, and running. Initially called "military pentathlon", the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) described the choice of events as follows: "The choice of the five diverse and unrelated sports which make up the Modern Pentathlon arose out of the romantic, rough adventures of a liaison officer whose horse is brought down in enemy territory; having defended himself with this pistol and sword he swims across a raging river and delivers the message on foot."

   Olympic history

   The sport first appeared on the Olympic programme in 1912. The order of the events is as follows: shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running. The riding is a cross-country steeplechase course. Fencing is a series of one-touch bouts with épée swords. For many years, the shooting was done with a rapid-fire pistol, but this was changed in 1992 to an air pistol. Until the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the swim was 300 metres freestyle and the run was a 4000 metre cross-country event. In Sydney, however, the distances were changed to 200 metres for swimming and 3000 metres for running, and women competed for the first time.

   Modern pentathlon was originally dominated by the Swedes. Since World War II the Hungarians and the Soviets have become the top countries. Scoring was originally done by a points-for-place system with the lowest score winning, but since 1956 the competition has been scored using points tables for each of the five events.

Credit: IOC

For further info., please visit http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/disciplines_uk.asp?DiscCode=MP.