The modern pentathletes have to change saddles, possibly from horseback to the bicycle seat. The Executive Committee of the Pentathlon World Federation (UIPM), which met on Thursday, announced in the evening in a kind of open letter what had already leaked: After the Olympic Games in 2024, show jumping will be replaced by another discipline. Which one should still be decided, it was said; that it is a cycling discipline has not been confirmed. The association only wrote of a “historic step” that could “shock” some in the scene. How true.
The background is the scandalous images of the Olympic pentathlon jumping in Tokyo, which aroused public outrage: Annika Schleu from Germany, who had been in the lead until then, had tried desperately and in vain to encourage her horse Saint Boy to jump with the help of a whip and spurs . Trainer Kim Raisner helped with a punch on the rear of the horse – and the call: “Hit it right!” Also without success. Similar images had already existed with Saint Boy’s first female rider, a Russian.
While animal welfare associations, the International Equestrian Association (FEI) and the German Equestrian Association (FN) called for the discipline to be replaced by another sport in the future, the 75-year-old World Association President Klaus Schormann emphasized in the aftermath of the Games that horse riding was a must of the pentathlon. In doing so, he referred to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who not only revived the modern Olympic Games, but also invented the Pentathlon as a test for young officers.
The Olympic end has been threatening in the pentathlon for a long time
As if one had all the time in the world, a working group was first appointed in the world association UIPM in Tokyo, which should then submit proposals to a general assembly at the end of November. But now it was suddenly in a hurry. Apparently the realization had prevailed that the Olympic presence of the pentathlon would be endangered if riding was not replaced. The world federation only wrote in its latest statement that “life in the Olympic movement is changing rapidly”. The end of the Olympic Games has been threatening for a long time in pentathlon – the nightmare for any sport that, like pentathlon, is financed to a large extent by funds from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Shortly before the official announcement, the industry service had already quoted “insidethegames” from an internal paper in which the UIPM warned the members of its executive committee: The IOC, whose program commission meets in December, will only accept one proposal there without riding. So it is too late for controversial discussions, the IOC expects a solution by November 24th. This means that a decision by the UIPM General Assembly from November 26th to 28th in Monaco would be too late. “By then, our sport could have long since been thrown out of the Olympic program,” said the UIPM paper.
In the latest announcement it was now said that one must also present a “new fresh perspective for the TV audience” in order to survive in the competition with new sports. Photos and videos of flogging riders and frustrated horses don’t fit into the picture. A new discipline must be attractive, inexpensive, easy to understand and associated with a minimal risk of injury. In addition, it should not come under the control of any other sport recognized by the IOC. The program has already been confirmed for the 2024 Olympics, and riding will be part of it again. The changes “will be implemented in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,” it said.
Not all pentathletes are happy about the planned change – the Olympic champion is even thinking of quitting
The association’s internal message had also said that the scandalous events in Tokyo were decisive for the proposal to remove riding from the pentathlon program. The concern for the welfare of the horse has increased steadily since Tokyo. Also, the system of giving away the horses does not allow the athletes a really fair sport. Understandable: This random principle favors the mediocre rider on a good horse over the good rider on a difficult horse.
The UIPM Vice-President Joel Bouzou has apparently been in favor of retiring from riding for a long time. He last told the French sports newspaper L’Équipe, Equestrian sport is holding back the development of the pentathlon, be it with a view to the practical implementation or the costs, which the world association also confirmed in its statement on Thursday. Bouzou said that “as early as 2018” began to deal with the abolition of horse riding: the decision to remove horse riding from the pentathlon had “nothing at all to do with the incidents in Tokyo”. That probably sounds better than admitting that you only take action after pressure from animal rights activists.
Even before the announcement by the world federation, many pentathletes had expressed themselves critically about the planned change: “That was a shock for me,” said Joe Choong, the Olympic champion from Tokyo, to the British media. “When riding is replaced by cycling,” he added, “I will no longer be there.” The German Matthias Sandten, who finished second in the European Championship in 2018, even goes so far as that the modern pentathlon is “dead” if you cut out one of the five disciplines: “The pentathlon takes its Olympic legitimacy from history alone”, Sandten thinks, “It is part of this sport that you force a horse over the course if necessary.” Only: “That is no longer accepted today.”
The German Association for Modern Pentathlon (DVMF), on the other hand, advocated replacing riding with another sport at an early stage. Although the athletes have shown very often how harmonious the interaction between man and horse can be in pentathlon, the current set of rules cannot do justice to the “increased awareness of animal welfare” in the long term. More a concession to public opinion than a concern for the well-being of the horses.