Open letter from UIPM president about new pentathlon stadium

After 15 year of exciting innovations in Modern Pentathlon I welcome you to our newest concept, the Pentathlon Stadium.

Now a spectator can watch 5 disciplines in 5 hours with 1 ticket from 1 seat. This revolutionary innovation will make its Olympic debut in Rio 2016 (currently in discussions) and will once again enhance our great sport to the spectators and media.

The main change that will occur is the fencing discipline. All the fencing action will now take place on one piste in an exciting, ladder, knock out system that ranks the fencers based on the results of the traditional fencing round held the day before and has them battling one another to improve their place and determine the overall winner.

The Pentathlon Stadium, is the latest innovation in Modern Pentathlon, after the highly successful implementation of environmentally and spectator friendly laser shooting & the combined event in London 2012 which resulted in it’s the highest ever media interest at the Olympic Games.

All these innovations target the world’s youth, as they are the future of our sport. The young athletes were the first to try laser shooting at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, and they will benefit from the new Pentathlon Stadium concept, as it will make the sport quicker and more exciting which is attractive to the fast paced life of today’s younger generation.

UIPM is not only focused on the sport at the Olympic level; we are also using the new laser technology to complement modern pentathlon’s development event, Biathle (run-swim-run) with a brand new event called Triathle which will see athletes run-shoot-swim. With the safe & environmentally friendly laser shooting, these events can now take place anywhere, such as in schools, city centres or even on beaches, which will allow us to spread our sport around the globe.

2013 will also see the debut of the UIPM Mixed Relay World Cup series in 5 countries in 4 continents. Ever since the event was included at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the 2010 Senior World Championships, it has been the athletes & fans favourite event. UIPM is looking forward to expanding this exciting discipline with this new series, building towards the event’s inclusion at Rio 2016.

The next 4 years are set to be very exciting for UIPM, as we continue to grow our sport internationally, as reflected by 6 different nations from 3 continents winning medals at in London 2012 and as we increase our appeal to the youth, through our fun, innovative technology and our new development event Triathle.

Modern Pentathlon Timeline

1912 - Stockholm: Introduced in the Olympic Programme by Pierre de Coubertin
1948 - London: UIPM was created
1996 – Atlanta: First time all five events were contested in one day at Olympics
2000 – Sydney: First time women competed in the Olympic Programme
2010 – Singapore: First Youth Olympic Games with Mixed Relay and the combined event with laser shooting
2012 – London: 100 Years of Modern Pentathlon in the Olympic Games with the combined event and laser shooting
2013 - Mixed Relay World Cup Series and Fencing Ladder system
2016 – Rio de Janeiro: Introduction of the Pentathlon Stadium with all 5 disciplines in 5 hours with 1 ticket from 1 seat

Dr h.c. Klaus Schormann

UIPM President