Paris 2024 Olympic Games: IOC Executive Board approves new Modern Pentathlon format

• Decision confirms adoption of elimination format with 90-minute showcase
• IOC praises ‘compact and sustainable’ solution with ‘short and dynamic competition flow’
• UIPM President: ‘This is a proud day for our entire global Modern Pentathlon movement’

The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) welcomes the decision by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to approve the new Modern Pentathlon format created for the Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024.

The news confirms that viewers and spectators watching the Olympic Games’ most demanding sport in 2024 will see a compelling showpiece featuring all five disciplines in 90 minutes. The new format features an elimination system that results in only 18 athletes taking part in each final.

The IOC EB decision, based on the recommendations of the Olympic Programme Commission, was confirmed yesterday and UIPM welcomes the acknowledgement that the new Modern Pentathlon format ‘will ensure a compact and sustainable event approach with a short and dynamic competition flow, in line with the overall evolution of the sport’.

The changes to Modern Pentathlon are designed to transform the profile and popularity of a sport that has been a constant feature of the world’s biggest sporting event since it was introduced by Baron Pierre de Coubertin – founder of the Modern Olympic Games – in Stockholm in 1912.

The vision for 2024 is designed to make Modern Pentathlon shorter, faster, more connected and compact and easier to understand for all audiences.

The new format was first approved by the UIPM Executive Board in October 2020 after test events in Budapest (HUN) and Cairo (EGY) that followed recommendations made by a working group set up by UIPM in 2019.

Following positive communication from the IOC, a task force was appointed in December 2020 to finalise the rules of the format based on evaluation and testing. A final test event then took place in Budapest (HUN) in April 2021, resulting in positive feedback from athlete participants.

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “This is a proud day for our entire global Modern Pentathlon community. Many people have contributed to our application for a new Modern Pentathlon format at the Olympic Games starting in Paris in 2024, and now their hard work has been recognised.

“On behalf of the UIPM Executive Board I express my gratitude to the IOC Executive Board for approving our application and recognising our innovation and our determination to add value to the Olympic Games through this dynamic new format.

“We look forward to working with the IOC Sport Department, broadcasters OBS and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee to ensure our sport is presented in the best possible way in Versailles, Paris, in three years’ time.

“A new era for our core Olympic sport will begin in the birthplace of our founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in 2024!”