OLYMPIC M. PENTATHLON

OLYMPIC MODERN PENTATHLON

They call it the 'Modern Pentathlon' to distinguish it from the one which, for some 900 years, was a feature of the ancient Olympic Games and consisted of four athletic events and wrestling. The word 'pentathlon' comes from Greek, 'penta' meaning five and 'athlon' equals contest. This is a most demanding sport. An athlete has to be good to very good at target shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding and running in order to succeed.

Today's modern pentathlon entered the Olympic program in 1912, largely as the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin, who saw this sport as the supreme test of versatility and felt it was an ideal sport for army officers.

The concept behind the competition is that a military courier sets out on horseback to carry a message. Along the way, he has to fight a duel with epees, use his pistol, swim across a river, and then run through the woods to reach his goal. And so it was: the sport gained quick acceptance especially in Sweden and Finland and for the first 30 years or so, only military personnel took part. Only Army officers were allowed to participate in 1912, when the United States was represented by a 26-year-old second lieutenant, George S. Patton, a skilled rider and fencer. Patton did very well in four of the events and might well have won the gold medal except for his poor marksmanship. He finished 21st in the pistol shooting event, which dropped him to fifth overall.

Competition was dominated by military officers until the 1950s, when the International Union of Modern Pentathlon and Biathlon (IUMPB) was founded to conduct annual world championships. At the 1952 Olympics, Lars Hall of Sweden became the first civilian gold medallist in the sport.

Scoring was originally based on a competitor's placing in the various events, with the lowest score winning. It's now based on a scoring table similar to the one used in track and field for the decathlon. Standards are set for each event and a competitor receives 1,000 points for equaling the standard. Points are added if the standard is exceeded and subtracted if the performance falls below the standard.

Until 1952 the placing of a competitor in the five events was added up and the lower the total, the higher he finished. After 1952 this was changed and a scoring system was introduced granting certain number of value points for a performance in each event. The exception now is the last, the cross-country which is really a "chase". The leader on points, after four events, starts the run first and the others follow him at intervals determined by the number of points they lag behind him. Thus, regardless of the outcome of the first four events, the winner is the one who crosses the finishing line first.

The events have changed somewhat since 1912. The equestrian event, originally a 5,000-meter cross-country ride against time, is now a 400-meter stadium jumping course with 12 obstacles. The horses, unlike in Olympic Grand Prix or Dressage, are supplied by the host country and the competitors draw lots for them. The swimming event has been cut from 300 meters to 200 meters, the cross-country running event from 4,000 meters to 3,000 meters. The shooting event, originally a 22-caliber pistol shot from 25 meters at a turning target, has become a 10-meter air pistol shot at a stationary target. As in 1912, the fencing portion of the modern pentathlon is a round robin-tournament using the epee weapon, with a single touch deciding each match if delivered in less than one minute. If there is no hit, both fencers lose the bout.

For decades, the number of competitors at the Olympics was not limited and the five events were held over five days. In 1948, at the London Olympics, 48 men took part. However, as the Olympic program started to get bloated, they tied participation rights to various pre-Olympic qualifying tests. In the year 2000, only 24 men and 24 women will contest all five events on the same day.

Woman began competing in the modern pentathlon in the late 1970s and the first women's world championship was conducted in 1980 in London. In the Olympics, however, competition was restricted to men until Sydney 2000 where women competed at the Olympics for the first time.