Innovative Paris 2024 Modern Pentathlon format undergoes final test

• Budapest (HUN) hosts replica Olympic Games competition  

• Format includes 90-minute showpiece comprising all five disciplines 

• Athletes from 10 nations taking part in four-day test event 

MONACO: April 22, 2021 – The new Modern Pentathlon format designed for introduction at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is being tested for the third and final time in Budapest (HUN) this week. 

An invitation to participate has resulted in 10 nations sending athletes to test the format at the same venue used for UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Cup Budapest, at the University of Public Service in the Hungarian capital. 

The innovative vision for the future of Modern Pentathlon at the Olympic Games – which includes a TV-friendly showpiece enabling viewers and spectators to watch all five disciplines in the space of 90 minutes – has become a cornerstone of UIPM’s innovation pathway along with a New Tetrathlon format designed for the 4th Youth Olympic Games in Dakar (SEN), now scheduled for 2026. 

The new Modern Pentathlon format has been developed over the past three years, culminating in test events in Budapest (HUN) and Cairo (EGY) last year, and finetuned with the guidance and support of a UIPM task force appointed in late 2020. 

The task force was appointed following a positive response given by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board to the proposed new format, which includes an elimination system designed to make the sport faster, shorter, more connected and compact and easier to understand. 

That vision is now subject to one final examination in Budapest (HUN), where the action began on April 22 with the Fencing Ranking Round and continues until April 25. 

Thirty-six male athletes and 21 female athletes will take part, with different permutations on trial such as two / three semi-finals each with 12 / 18 athletes.  

All disciplines will take place on the same field of play, except the Fencing Ranking Round, with no more than 120m walking distance separating the Swimming, Fencing Bonus Round, Riding and Laser Run courses. 

One member of the task force, UIPM Executive Board Member for Sport and 1976 Olympic champion Janusz Peciak, said: “In these days in Budapest we will have a further opportunity to see the new Modern Pentathlon format designed for Paris 2024 being tested in a competition environment. 

“It is wonderful to have almost 60 athletes from 10 nations taking part in this important test event. They will have the chance to experience this innovative new vision for Modern Pentathlon, and we are looking forward to hearing their feedback after the positive comments that came from previous test events in 2020.” 

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “We just had two successful Pentathlon World Cups in Sofia and we are now with a group of athletes in Budapest for the last event for the new Modern Pentathlon format designed for Paris 2024.

“The organising committee in Hungary has prepared everything in a very efficient way and all participating nations have taken part in a technical meeting where they got instructions about how it will work, step by step and discipline by discipline. 

“We are looking forward to a successful test and to monitoring the format together with coaches and officials to discuss if any modifications need to be made in future. It is very important that we listen to the athletes and find out what is their judgment about this test.”