who knows anything about this sport from the competitive point of view? i shoot well, and can swim and run. never ridden a horse or fenced. how do people get into it? how competitive/expensive is it? can i go to the 2008 olympics?
-mike
It’s quite expensive, fencing gear, equestrian gear, and the air pistols are quite pricy. The field from which the US draws is pretty small, the US training center is in San Antonio, they used to have a series over the winter months to sort out who goes to Nationals, Worlds, etc. Usually the medals are won by former Eastern-bloc countries.
I was very seriously considering getting into the sport, as I do everything but ride a horse already, but after the Syndey Game I saw an American who was in 1st going into the equestrian, drew a tough horse and ended up waay out of the medals.
I wouldn’t want my 4 years of training to end because of luck of the draw, so I stuck w/ tris.
good luck.
I think this event is so goofy, but I imagine it would be lots of fun to train for.
I think your biggest obstacle will be the horse riding. There are some serious costs associated with equestrian side of things.
They should make a new event called the Neo Pentathlon, Neo for new - not for the F’ing matrix, where you have to:
Drive a open-wheel race car through a road course (ovals are for losers)
Swim
Run
Lets see… what are coolish gentlemanly thing these days…
Hack a computer
Base jump off something
That’ll do.
For spice, suggest your own events for the Neo Pentathlon
how fast do you have to swim and run to really roll? i keep looking up results and just getting point scores rather than times.
-mike
p.s - what’s a good horse cost these days, like 50 bucks?
I am just getting into pentathlon but this is what I have found:
For the national level coaches to be interested you need to be able to swim and run at the elite level for the sport. I would say you need a combined score of 2000-2100 for the swim and run.
It is an expensive sport to get into. I am very lucky because the university I coach xc/track at has one of the better fencing programs and the coach is interested in coaching modern pentathlon. Thats who kind of got me into this whole thing. I am going down to San Antonio this fall and do not really know what to expect but can tell you more after that. My best advice is just have fun with it. For me it is just nice to experience some new sports since I’ve been doing tris since I was 10.
You got me intrigued on this, so I finally found some results
http://olympics.nytimes.com/results/MP/ Has some, if you click on the individual events.
Swim from Athens 2004 (Points):
Fastest - 1:58.88 (1376)
Slowest - 2:18.34 (1140)
Run from Athens 2004
Fastest - 9:31.46 (1116)
Slowest - 11:02.25 (752) (Sort of, there is a 2 min drop to the actual slowest)
For the other three, you’re on your own.
yeah, i’m right there too. i’m a uni student with access to great programs, including the weird stuff like a shooting range (there not too common in canada) and fencing instruction. i’m 25 and have been racing for 11 years, and am ready to mix things up a bit. i could certainly run a 3000 under 10 minutes, though i’ve always been a better open-water than pool swimmer.
did you find it fun? are the people interesting? could be cool, we’ll see.
-mike
Check out this thread, http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=381417;search_string=sheila;#381417
Sheila T. is making a run at Modern Pentathlon, and Lew Kidder lays out some information about scoring.
I’ve thought about this a couple of times, though I am too old to make anything of it. The website for the US organization indicates that they look for strong runners and swimmers, and teach them the skill sports. In a previous life, I was a pretty competitive equestrian, so I always came at it from the perspective of being able to ride, run OK and swim less-than-ok, but I don’t know didly about shooting or fencing.
If you are a sub 16:30 5k, sub 2:20 200M kinda guy, give them a holler and see what happens.
FWIW, good show jumping horses can run well north of $1,000,000, but you can get good riding the cheaper ones.
yeah, i was thinking of maybe getting a job cleaning stables in exchange for lessons or something. . .
-mike
Yup, we are in the same boat, I’m 24. I have not met anyone else in pentathlon. Many of the coaches are Russians and most of the top US athletes are in the military. I would say try it out this winter, at the worse you have some catching up to do on the bike next spring.
I’ve coached some pentathletes… I hate the sport, luck has to do with sucess simply too much!
I have kind of bad news to you… you might be too old to pick up fencing. But by all means prove me wrong!
Plus all the events are in a single day, not spread out over two. So, the 3k x-country run in at the end of all the other four events… I bet that would be tough.
Inside triathlon ran a very good article a couple of years ago about modern pentathlon.
http://www.insidetri.com/news/fea/1490.0.html
The actor Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago in Rocky IV) was the team manager for the 1996 US Olympic team. This fact probably doesn’t relate to the 2008 Olympics, but I was a big fan of Rocky IV.
How’s this for some competition?
Because Sheila decided to enter the sport, I have done a fair amount of reading, including the “high performance report” of U.S. Modern Pentathlon. If you are a run-of-the-mill male elite in swimming and running (say 2:00 for 200 free LC and 9:20 for 3.000 meters on the track), the critical skill appears to be fencing. You won’t get much (if any) advantage on the other competitors in swimming and running, and show jumping and shooting are measured against hard standards (clear the fences within a given time period, accuracy with an air pistol). On the other hand, fencing is scored by how you do in sudden-death (one touch) bouts with all of the other competitors. Those who win high percentages of bouts in fencing win medals, those who don’t, don’t.
Sheila, however, would be a paradigm shift for the sport. Her pr in the 200 meter LC free is 2:01 - but if she could swim 2:08 in competition (a reasonable goal for her at the age of 39 in Beijing), she would score 1384 points. And if she could run 10:00 in the 3000 meters xc (she has run 5000 in 16:05 and 10,000 in 33:40), she would score 1320. That would give her 2700 points in those two events - and 5450 points WON the women’s competition in Athens.
Just as a point of interest, the U.S. modern pentathlon federation in San Antonio folded a few months ago. The USOC has taken it in-house and is basing it entirely in Colorado Springs (though they do have occasional specific skills camps at other locations).
Because Sheila decided to enter the sport, I have done a fair amount of reading, including the “high performance report” of U.S. Modern Pentathlon. If you are a run-of-the-mill male elite in swimming and running (say 2:00 for 200 free LC and 9:20 for 3.000 meters on the track), the critical skill appears to be fencing. You won’t get much (if any) advantage on the other competitors in swimming and running, and show jumping and shooting are measured against hard standards (clear the fences within a given time period, accuracy with an air pistol). On the other hand, fencing is scored by how you do in sudden-death (one touch) bouts with all of the other competitors. Those who win high percentages of bouts in fencing win medals, those who don’t, don’t.
Sheila, however, would be a paradigm shift for the sport. Her pr in the 200 meter LC free is 2:01 - but if she could swim 2:08 in competition (a reasonable goal for her at the age of 39 in Beijing), she would score 1384 points. And if she could run 10:00 in the 3000 meters xc (she has run 5000 in 16:05 and 10,000 in 33:40), she would score 1320. That would give her 2700 points in those two events - and 5450 points WON the women’s competition in Athens.
Just as a point of interest, the U.S. modern pentathlon federation in San Antonio folded a few months ago. The USOC has taken it in-house and is basing it entirely in Colorado Springs (though they do have occasional specific skills camps at other locations).
Hi Lew,
Since you have done more research than me on the subject maybe you could help out. Especially since the association in San Antonio asked me to come down and you say they have folded. Who would you suggest I approach re: my interest in modern pentathlon? I am not at the level of Shelia but have a range in the running events and have not specialized. 60 second quarter speed, 1 hr 25 min 1/2 marathon. Never done a 200 meter free in a swim meet nor focused on the event but I suspect I could go around 2:25 for 200 meters based on workouts and longer events. I am 24 and think now would be the right time to make the switch from tri’s. Advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
For information about getting started in modern pentathlon at the Olympic development level, contact Rebecca Crawford. She is USOC’s sports “partner” for the sport. (rebecca.crawford@usoc.org). Note: They have certain minimum standards for the swim and run in order to be accepted into the program - and I think they are a fair amount quicker than you are going now.