On November 4, the international federation of modern pentathlon decided to remove horse jumping from the 5 traditional disciplines of the sport.
During the Tokyo Olympics last summer, a horse was poorly treated by a German athlete and her coach.
But the vice president of the federation claims the change is unrelated to what happened during the 2020 Olympics. According to Joel Bouzou, a modification was being considered since 2018 because horse jumping was an obstacle in the development of the sport because of the costs with the discipline.
Pierre de Coubertin created modern pentathlon, inspired by a Greek competition, and was meant to represent the most complete athlete. Introduced in the Stockholm 1912 Olympics, modern pentathlon included and equestrian show jumping, freestyle swimming, a cross country running combined with a pistol shooting which is now a laser run.
Several hundreds of current and former athletes rejected the change. According to insidethegames.biz, 667 of them jointly sent a “vote of no confidence in the President and complete Executive Board” and called for their resignation.
The change will be implemented for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The federation opened a consultation for the replacement of the discipline, which is not going to be cycling, once considered as a preferred choice.
