“We represent the athletes’ views and will ensure their voices are heard.” Pentathlon United not quiet about UIPM’s decision on fifth discipline

As the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) moves forward with testing two variations of an obstacle discipline, to replace equestrian in modern pentathlon, their leadership is continuing to be called into question by current and past Olympic athletes.

Joe Choong, the Tokyo 2020 gold medal winner, has even gone far as to say to Reuters he will walk away from the sport if the sport’s governing body moves ahead with the decision to replace horse riding.

The activist group Pentathlon United was set up to give modern pentathletes a voice to allow their views to be heard. Spokesperson Kate Allenby, who competed in two Olympic Games and won a bronze medal in Sydney 2000, told Around the Rings the UIPM has failed the athletes and the sport in many ways.

“We need a UIPM leadership who listens to its athletes and respects their views to retain riding,” she said. “A leadership that is bold and credible with the Olympic Movement and its athletes.”

The sport of modern pentathlon has been a part of the Olympic Games since 1912, but they are not included on the LA28 program currently. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strongly hinted to the UIPM the sport needs to “modernize” and remove equestrian as one of the five disciplines if they wish to be included in future Olympic Games.

While Allenby agrees the sport needs to evolve to stay relevant, there are ways to do that without fundamentally changing the core of what modern pentathlon is, something the UIPM has failed to recognize.

“All sports need to modernize to keep competitive in the battle for viewers, sponsors and relevance, but it doesn’t mean casting out your history and heritage. Other sports have listened to their players and athletes to understand what matters to them.

“They’ve created new formats and innovations to challenge their athletes, while also finding new ways to present the sport on television and social media. But they’ve also kept their product, recognizable for what they have always been, and why athletes and fans play it and watch it in the first place.”

For the past six months the UIPM has been looking at alternatives to equestrian and said in a statement they will begin testing the obstacle course racing (OCR) discipline after the 2022 Pentathlon World Cup Final in Ankara, Turkey in June.

The UIPM said athletes played a central role in the process of selecting OCR as the new fifth discipline, per the IOC’s request back in November, but Allenby insists that’s not telling the whole story.

“The UIPM’s engagement with athletes has been little more than a veneer,” she told Around the Rings. “It was apparent they had already made up their minds to introduce OCR regardless of what anyone else thought or wanted. I can’t believe the IOC will be pleased to learn the extent to which the athletes have been shut out of this process.

“We won’t stand for that. There is no sport, Olympic or otherwise, if there are no athletes to take part. Our views won’t be ignored.”

Furthermore, selecting OCR to replace equestrian won’t solve the sport’s underlying issues.

“The IOC has said the sport needs to reduce its cost and complexity but there are many other ways to do it. They’ve been quite clear about their criteria regarding participation, TV, digital and youth engagement, ticket sales and more. Replacing equestrian wouldn’t be an issue if the sport was more successful in those areas. The blame for that is solely with the UIPM the past 30 years. They have failed in all those areas.”

The format for modern pentathlon in Paris 2024 will remain unchanged from Tokyo, but Allenby doesn’t see OCR being a long-term solution.

“The idea that simply adding OCR will solve these issues is nonsense. OCR has its own issues with the IOC criteria. OCR athletes will be highly skilled at what they do, but they fence to international standard, swim 200m in two minutes or run and shoot? Can modern pentathletes tackle an obstacle course to the level of OCR athletes?

The UIPM is expecting these athletes to achieve all these standards in one Olympic cycle. What they need to do is offer credible proposals for the future of the sport, and show how these proposals, which must include equestrian, will get modern pentathlon reinstated in the LA28 Olympics.”

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