Rio 2016 Olympics: Know your sport — Modern Pentathlon

Modern Pentathlon was introduced to the Olympics in 1912 and sees athletes tested in five different sports. India has no representative in Rio.

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Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite won the women’s modern pentathlon gold at the 2012 London Olympics. (Source: Reuters)

The 28th edition of the modern Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janereio from August 5 to 21. Since it first began in Athens in 1896, the Games have seen exponential growth with rise in the number of participating nations and number of athletes. The Games are being hosted in a South American city for the first time. The 2016 Games will see players competing in 41 disciplines from 28 sports. A total of 306 medals are on stake and more than 10, 500 players are participating. The sports at the Games vary from water to track and field and filed events. Each game has a different set of rules and different ways to win a medal. We bring to you a breakdown of each sport.

Sports basics: Modern Pentathlon is a real test of stamina, mental demands and skills in multiple sports to win a medal. The sport takes intense concentration, co-ordination and flexibility to not just excel in one sporting style but five. And to make it even more trickier, all five events are held in one day giving the athletes little to no time to switch off. It comprises of fencing, 200m freestyle swimming, horse riding, pistol shooting and 3200m running.

History: It has been part of the Olympics since 1912 with its origin a debatable one. Even though it has been included in all the Olympic Games, Modern Pentathlon remains one of the lesser watched sport needing its inclusion validated. In 2013, IOC confirmed Modern Pentathlon as one of the 25 core sports till 2020 Games in Tokyo. The event was changed from the Ancient Olympics in 1912 to suit the athletes in the 20th century.

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Scoring format: Points are scored in the fencing, swimming and riding events and converted into time for the 3.2 km race with the first three finishers bagging the medals. Starting from fencing, all 36 athletes face each other over one-minute rounds and a win rate of over 70% fetches 250 points. In swimming, time of less than two minutes and 30 seconds gets the athletes 250 points. In horse riding, athletes are required to jump over 12 obstacles and accumulate points based on finishing within the time limit and within limited mistakes. Shooting and the running events are combined with five targets placed after every 800 metres. Athletes start off based on their points in first three events and can be different by a second or more.

Categories: Mens and women’s modern pentathlon

Indian contender(s): India has no representative in the modern pentathlon at Rio 2016 Olympics.