Starting Thursday, August 8, the modern pentathlon events will take place at the Palace of Versailles. A historic sport of the Games, but with difficult rules.
The modern pentathlon is both one of the oldest and least known events on the Olympic programme. Established at the Athens Games in 1896 on the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin, its aim is to have athletes compete in very different disciplines, unlike the decathlon for men and the heptathlon which focus on athletics events.
The pentathlon was already present in the ancient games, but with other disciplines. While the Greeks had chosen the discus throw, the javelin throw, the long jump, running and wrestling, Pierre de Coubertin decided for this new version of the pentathlon fencing, swimming, horse riding and a combined 3200m running event with four passes on a laser pistol shooting range.
In fencing, two pentathletes compete with the épée in one winning touch. The equestrian event consists of a series of show jumping on a course with 10 difficulties. The main difficulty of this event is in fact the drawing of the participating horses between the athletes 20 minutes before the start of the event. This method of designation has notably given rise to controversial scenes during previous Games, with competitors lost on horses they did not know. Some had thus been disqualified for mistreatment.
For Swimming, athletes are ranked based on their time in the 200-meter freestyle. Finally, the pentathletes take off for the last event of the combined running and shooting with a one-second gap per point in the ranking after the first three disciplines. They run a 3200m race with four stops for a laser pistol shot at five targets, and the first to cross the line wins.
The competition begins at the Olympic Games on Thursday, August 8 with a first fencing ranking round, before semi-finals on August 9 for men and 10 for women. The finals will take place on August 10 and 11 respectively. During each round, all the events are completed.
For these Games of Paris 2024France arrives with great chances of a medal, both in the men’s and women’s categories. Valentin Prades and Elodie Clouvel indeed come with great ambitions for the competition which will take place at the Château de Versailles.