FAQ
What's the latest position with regard to modern pentathlon and the Olympics?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is currently reviewing the 28 sports currently on the programme of the Olympic Games, as well as five applicant sports.
The report is the outcome of a two-year process, which began at the IOC Session in Mexico City in 2002. At this extraordinary Session, the IOC decided to systematically review the composition of the sports programme after each edition of the Olympic Games to ensure that its composition continues to be relevant and meet the expectations of future sporting generations. After that, the Olympic Programme Commission, in collaboration with the International Federations, defined 33 criteria to be used as the basis of the evaluation questionnaire.
The questionnaire was then submitted to the 28 Summer Olympic International Federations. In order to widen the analysis to other sports that could potentially add to the quality and popularity of the programme, the IOC decided to study further five Recognised Federations, namely the International Roller Sports Federation, the World Squash Federation, the International Golf Federation, the World Karate Federation, and the International Rugby Board. These five Recognised Federations were also requested to complete the evaluation questionnaire before 15 November 2004.
The Final report was published in June 2005 and the IOC Executive Board will vote on the sports in the Olympic Programme at their Congress in Singapore in July 2005 with the outcome being made public on 6 July 2005.
The MPAGB and UIPM are confident that the sport of Modern Pentathlon will continue to remain as part of the Olympic Programme.
What are the UIPM doing about it?
The UIPM have been lobbying and produced a leaflet (produced by the Director of Mark eting, Martin Dawe [ Vice Chairman of MPAGB]} and distributed it to all international IOC Executive Board Members. The leaflet informed them of the history of the sport, cost of holding the event at the Olympics, world wide appeal, cultural contribution and the changes that Modern Pentathlon have made to make the sport more media friendly.
In addition, the President and Secretary General have been meeting with many IOC members and working with GAISF to help make the delegates more aware of the sport
What are MPAGB doing about it?
The MPAGB through the Board and their Vice President have been lobbying all British IOC Executive Board Members as well as past members to inform them of the history and contribution that Modern Pentathlon has made to the Olympic Games programme.
What future is there for the sport if you are dropped from the Olympics?
The sport will continue to be recognized by the IOC even if dropped from the Olympic Programme. The MPAGB would hope that if London 2012 are successful with their bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012 that the organizing committee would consider holding the sport within the competition programme as a demonstration event.
We would expect funding for our elite athletes to continue until 2008 but a reduction in funding from Sport England for Talented Athletes prior to this.
FUNDING
How is the MPAGB funded?
The MPAGB receive funding from a variety of sources with the majority of the funding coming from the Sports Councils.
The Performance Programme for elite athletes is supported by UK Sport with 1,620,000 awarded over the next Olympic cycle. A Talent identification Programme is funded by Sport England, Sport Scotland and Sport Wales with Sport England?s contribution being 2,340,000 up until the end of March 2009.
The MPAGB also receive support of 620,000 from UK Sport for Corporate Governance over the Olympic cycle.
Operations for other areas comes from members subscriptions, sponsors, and donations.
The MPAGB
The Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain has three key aims:
- There are clear and effective pathways to participation at all levels and the ability of members (athletes or volunteers) to fulfill their full potential
- World Class Talent is identified and nurtured at the earliest opportunity.
- Continued Gold medal success is achieved at the Olympics, World and European Championships
What are the events?
MODERN PENTATHLON, THE COMPLETE TEST OF AN ATHLETE
Men and women compete in all five events held in one day. A points system for each event is based on a standard performance earning 1,000 points. The winner is the pentathlete who has accumulated the most points after the five events.
The five sports (in order)
- Shooting ? Air Pistol 20 shots at a target 10m away using a 4.5mm calibre air pistol
- Fencing ? Weapon ? Epee. Competitors fight all the other athletes in the competition. Duration of the fight is a maximum of 1 minute, if there is not a winner within this time the both athletes are declared to have lost.
- Swimming ? 200m freestyle
- Riding ? show jumping riding a horse drawn by ballot ? the horses are provided by the organisers
- Running ? 3000m cross country, the race is a staggered start with the leader of the competition going off first and then the subsequent athletes leaving the equivalent in time they are behind the leader ? first across the line is declared the winner of the whole event.