The federations for modern pentathlon approved a decision to replace horse riding with American Ninja Warrior-style obstacle courses as a fifth discipline to save the sport from Olympic elimination.
There were 83 members who submitted a valid vote during the organization’s congress session, with 69 casting a ballot in favor, 11 against and three abstaining.
The next step: approval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the change.
Photo: AP
As it stands, modern pentathlon in its current form of fencing, swimming, laser shooting, running and show jumping would be off the program after the 2024 Paris Games.
Modern pentathlon faced a major crossroads with the show-jumping component of the five-event competition coming under scrutiny after a German coach was filmed hitting an uncooperative horse during the Tokyo Olympics last year.
In an effort to get back on the Olympic program, Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) tested out obstacle-course racing to replace horse riding. Ring swings and rope mazes could take center stage for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, should the IOC approve the change.
“We are not forgetting our past, our heritage, but our goal is the future,” UIPM President Klaus Schormann said in a statement. “It’s very important that our voting members today provided a strong mandate for obstacle discipline to be integrated into our Olympic multisport.”
To some people in the modern pentathlon community, this sort of change tears at the essence of a sport that is intricately tied to horses. This is a sport that has been part of the Olympics for more than 100 years.
Invented by IOC founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, it has gone through several transformations, such as pistol shooting being replaced by laser guns before the 2012 London Games.
This change also has been viewed as a way to modernize the sport in a time when the Olympics seek a younger audience.
When Kim Ye-ji first tried shooting at age 12 she could not lift the gun. Now, she is the world’s most Internet-famous Olympic shooter, thanks to her steel nerves — and Elon Musk. Kim, 32, won silver in the women’s 10m air pistol at the Paris Olympics this summer and captured the Internet’s attention with her nonchalant cool. However, she said she fell into her sport by accident. When her middle-school teacher asked for volunteers to try shooting, Kim did not raise her hand, but was selected anyway. Despite being too small to hoist the pistol, she was hooked. “I thought it looked
Taiwanese swimmer Hsu Wen-erh on Monday finished her solo swim around Manhattan Island to become the first Taiwanese and only the 334th person to finish the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, after abandoning her first attempt in New York on Sunday. “Who says, I’ll come back couldn’t means the next day?” she wrote on Facebook on Monday, after returning to the water to complete New York’s 48.5km 20 Bridges Swim, the final leg of her Triple Crown campaign. Trailed by a kayak flying Taiwan’s national flag, Hsu went on to finish the brutal swim in 9 hours, 5 minutes, to capture
LISBON UPSET: Feyenoord’s coach said that his players might not have realized what they had achieved in winning away against Portuguese giants SL Benfica MANCHESTER, England, and LISBON Erling Haaland on Wednesday scored an outrageous backheel volley in the UEFA Champions League to issue a timely reminder of his own credentials as a potential Ballon d’Or winner. A day after Vinicius Junior hit a hat-trick for Real Madrid, Haaland scored an early contender for goal of the season with his acrobatic effort in Manchester City’s 5-0 win against Sparta Prague. Vinicius Junior is the favorite to win soccer’s most prestigious individual prize, which is to be presented at a gala ceremony in Paris on Monday, but Haaland, who was runner-up to Lionel Messi for last year’s award,
Although Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series is a global sports event, it is particularly big in Japan. Fans from Ohtani’s home nation bought more World Series tickets for the first two games than from anywhere outside North America, ticket broker StubHub said. Dodger Stadium was packed to the rafters on Friday night for the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ showdown with the New York Yankees. “Ohtani’s first season with the Dodgers drew big international appeal, especially from his home country of Japan,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said. “At the beginning of the season, buyers from