UIPM 2024 Pentathlon U17 World Championships: President’s welcome

Dear athletes, dear coaches and trainers, dear guests and officials!  

Welcome to one of the most exciting competitions in the global Modern Pentathlon calendar.

The UIPM 2024 Pentathlon U17 World Championships promises to be a thrilling and captivating week of competition – and with historic importance. This will be the first UIPM World Championships since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where we said farewell to the traditional Modern Pentathlon format that will forever have a place in our heritage and our hearts.

Times change, and we are embracing change as a movement, so it is tremendously exciting that we gather here in Caldas da Rainha to see the future of our sport materialise.

For the second year in succession, our U17 athletes will compete to become world champions in the new Modern Pentathlon format of Obstacle, Fencing, Swimming and Laser Run. They will be ready to convert their training into results as they chase their dreams in a new Olympic cycle – some of them may even become the stars of Los Angeles 2028 in four years’ time.

It is a pleasure to be back in Portugal, where the Portuguese Modern Pentathlon Federation – celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2024 – always provides wonderful hospitality and exciting competitions with enthusiastic crowds, passionate volunteers and committed sponsors and media representatives.

Within our movement we are always looking to the future and taking care of the next generations. In these unstable times, when the world continues to be shaken by regional conflicts, our stars of tomorrow remind us all that sport can be a powerful beacon of peace, respect and hope.

This competition begins on an important date, as September 9 is when we celebrate our heritage through Pierre de Coubertin Pentathlon Day. As always, I ask athletes to remember their responsibility to compete in a spirit of fair play, as our founder envisaged, and respect the Olympic values as we together enjoy the glory of our wonderful sport of Modern Pentathlon. Faster, Stronger, Higher … Together.

Dr Klaus Schormann

UIPM President