The sport that's shown survival instincts - Financial Times, Arts & Weekend (10/08/07)
By Pat Butcher
Few sports are as closely linked to the Olympic Games as the modern pentathlon. Indeed, the sport owes its very existence to Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement, who conceived the five-discipline event as an addition to the programme for the 1912 Games in Stockholm. Perhaps de Coubertin was trying to reproduce the success of the marathon, an event that had no precedent in the Ancient Olympics. De Coubertin's friend, the historian Michel Bréal, had suggested that the long-distance race would augment the inaugural Games in Athens in 1896, by recalling the Hellenic legend of Phillipides, who ran across Attica seeking help before the Athenian victory in the Battle of Marathon in 490BC.
In contrast, there was a pentathlon in the Ancient Games and de Coubertin's version was intended to honour a similar military tradition. The event is based on the idea that, in order to deliver a message, a soldier must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight a duel, shoot his way out of an ambush, and swim a river before running to his destination.
Unsurprisingly, the competitors in the first decades were all military men. One went on to become one of the world's most famed soldiers. It clearly was not George Patton's marksmanship that made him a legendary general three decades later, since the American was only 21st out of 32 in the shooting, finishing fifth overall in Stockholm.
But while the marathon has always had a popular allure as one of the ultimate sporting challenges, the modern pentathlon has made little if any impact outside the Olympics. It will gain a little limelight next week, however, when this year's world championships take place in Berlin.
Yet even at the Olympics, the event has had to be reinvented regularly in order to stave off calls for it to be eliminated from the Games by those who regard it as an elitist and militaristic anachronism.
One of the lowest points came in Montreal 1976. Members of the British squad complained that the lights indicating a “hit” must be faulty during their fencing bouts with Boris Onishenko of the Soviet Union. Onishenko's épée was registering hits without them being touched.
It turned out that the Soviet army major – one of the world's leading pentathletes – had “wired” his sword to register false hits. Immediately nicknamed “Dis-Onishenko”, the Ukrainian and the rest of the Soviet squad were disqualified. The British went on to a famous team victory, coming from eighth after four events thanks to their cross-country running prowess.
A series of changes ensued. Originally a five-day individual and team event, it was first cut to four days in order to avoid the use of beta-blockers in the shooting event – competitors could take them and the calming effects would have worn off by the next day's “explosive” event. The individual event was then crammed into one day, and the team event was dropped in 1996.
But there had been an earlier innovation, which had gone a long way to assuring the sport's continued Olympic status. In 1984, instead of the one-minute intervals between random competitors in the final event, the cross-country, the runners were sent off according to their standing after four events, with the leader first and pursuers given a time penalty commensurate with their points deficit.
Results since then suggest that the athletics multi-events, the heptathlon and decathlon, should adopt the same system. For there was an immediate spectacular finish in Los Angeles in 1984, with leader Daniele Masala of Italy being caught with 100 metres to run by Svante Rasmuson. The Swede hurtled past, only to stumble on the soft earth just before the finish line, permitting Masala to win. A similar thrilling finish, between winner Aleksandr Parygin of Kazakhstan and Eduard Zenovka of Russia in Atlanta 1996 won even more headlines.
Nowadays, the Union International de Pentathlon Moderne, the sport's governing body, is so confident of continued Olympic inclusion that there is a lobby for the addition of a three-person relay event to replace the former team event.
There is already a relay in the world championships, and next week in Berlin the overwhelming favourites for the women's title will be the British squad. They are in the enviable situation of having five world-class performers: Olympic bronze medallist Georgina Harland, last year's European bronze medallist Mhairi Spence, Heather Fell and Katy Livingston who were second and sixth respectively in this year's European championships, and national champion Lindsay Weedon. They will all be fighting for just two Olympic spots in Beijing next year.
“If there was still a team event in the Olympic Games,” says national coach Jan Bartu, himself a bronze medallist with Czechoslovakia in 1976, “Britain would be outstanding favourites for gold.”
Spence, 21 and from Inverness in Scotland, does not underestimate the challenge of gaining a place for Beijing. “I'd love to get in the top three [in Berlin], and get automatic selection, but I'm keeping an open mind, I'll go and see what happens.”
The overall standard at the world championships will be similarly high, with all six current Olympic medallists – Andrei Moiseev of Russia, Andrejus Zadneprovskis of Lithuania and Libor Capalini of the Czech Republic; and Zsuzsanna Vörös of Hungary, Yelena Rublevska of Latvia, and Harland – taking part, with particularly strong squads from eastern Europe. In total there will be 40 nations represented in Berlin, a significant increase on recent years.
There is also a shift regarding the competitors with more coming from a student background rather than a military one. For example, when Britain's Stephanie Cook won the inaugural women's event in Sydney 2000, much was made of the academic achievements of the participants. Cook, a doctor, had degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. Silver medallist Emily de Riel, of the US, was a Yale graduate and, while training with Cook at Oxford, earned a masters degree in medieval English literature. Third-placed Kate Allenby, also from Britain, was a philosophy graduate.
A sign, even a signifier, that a name change this time might ensure further Olympic consolidation – anyone for the “postmodern pentathlon”?
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