Wednesday, November 03, 2021
After a scandal at the Olympics
Riding is removed from modern pentathlon
It is the consequence of the debacle about the German athlete Annika Schleu at the Olympic Games: In the future, riding is no longer part of the modern pentathlon. This is confirmed by Joel Bouzou, Vice President of the world association. According to reports, cycling is to be started instead.
The modern pentathlon will in future be operated without the sub-discipline of riding. This was confirmed by World Federation Vice President Joël Bouzou of the French sports newspaper “L’Equipe” and also stated that a replacement has not yet been determined. “Equestrian sport is an obstacle to the development of our sport, both in terms of practice and cost,” Bouzou is quoted as saying. “We started thinking about it back in 2018.”
According to Bouzou, the decision has nothing to do with what happened during the Tokyo Olympics. Nevertheless, there is an unmistakable – at least temporal – connection with the scandal and the resulting public outrage. There Annika Schleu had not been able to cope with a drawn and completely insecure horse and had desperately used a whip and spurs. The trainer Kim Raisner had hit the horse with his fist and called out loudly: “Hit it right!”
The British “Guardian” and the industry service “Inside the Games” had previously reported on rule changes and named cycling as a new sub-discipline. The decision was made at a meeting of the umbrella organization UIPM, in which the cancellation of riding was voted on.
For tomorrow, Thursday, the UIPM announced a communication on the results of its deliberations. Shortly after the events at the Summer Games in Tokyo, the German World Federation President Klaus Schormann had assured “that riding would remain an integral part of the modern pentathlon based on the vision of Baron Pierre de Coubertin”. In this view, Schormann now seems either to have been outvoted or to have changed his mind.
The disciplines in modern pentathlon include horse riding, fencing and swimming as well as a combined competition of running and shooting with a laser pistol.