09/11/2022
From sportspromedia.com
‘The sport cannot survive’: Why UIPM’s removal of horse riding has caused a modern pentathlon civil war
Ever since the UIPM decided to remove the equestrian discipline and move towards obstacle course running, the modern pentathlon community has been deeply divided about the sport’s future. After months of arguing and with a place at the Olympics on the line, SportsPro explains how it came to this ahead of the crucial upcoming UIPM Congress.
9 NOVEMBER 2022 JOSH SIM
An Olympic Games without the modern pentathlon would once have been considered unthinkable. Indeed, Greek philosopher Aristotle previously described those competing in the sport as the ‘most beautiful’ of all.
Its core sport status has also long been assured given that Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, personally designed the multi-discipline sport, which today consists of fencing, running, swimming, shooting, and equestrian show jumping.
But ever since German team coach Kim Raisner was shown punching a horse at the Tokyo 2020 Games, the sport has been fighting to save its place in the Olympics. The incident stirred shock and outrage around the world.
Once considered a mainstay, modern pentathlon finds itself on the brink of being wiped out for future editions of the Games.
Now, its governing body, the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM), believes it has found the solution to save the sport: to replace the show jumping discipline with obstacle course running.
Why has show jumping been removed?
In November 2021, leaked documents sent by the UIPM to its executive board members claimed the sport wouldn’t be selected for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if it didn’t drop the riding discipline. The documents cited a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which would ‘only accept a proposal without riding’ for 2028.
With that in mind, the UIPM voted last November to remove show jumping from the sport after the 2024 Paris Olympics. The executive board controversially exercised a force majeure clause to enact the removal, citing pressure from the IOC. The motion was approved at the UIPM Congress later that month, passing with 66 votes to 15.
Afterwards, the Danish, Swedish and Finnish national federations all wrote a joint letter to the UIPM, calling the Congress session ‘farcical’ and alleging there were ‘clear breaches’ of election rules taking place. That was in addition to a case launched by the Danish Modern Pentathlon Association (MPADK) at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) weeks beforehand, arguing that the UIPM executive board’s use of force majeure was unjust. The case was dismissed by the court eight months later.
However, the vote didn’t appear to fully convince the IOC, with pentathlon left out from the initial list of sports for LA 2028. While the Olympic body has since denied providing the UIPM with any ultimatum, UIPM president Klaus Schormann says that he has discussed the future of horse riding with several IOC presidents “through many Olympic Games” in the past.
He said: “If people had been listening to all our colleagues in all our continental championships, they could learn that there was a process. So to say now that [the potential change] was a surprise, it wasn’t. This is ignorant and not understanding the process over years already seen.
“I discussed with [Juan Antonio] Samaranch, with [Jacques] Rogge, with [Thomas] Bach and [Avery] Brundage. Brundage said there was no fairness with the horses. We knew this but there was not a point where we weren’t loving our discipline.”
At a recent press conference, UIPM Athletes Committee chair Yasser Hefny further claimed that IOC sports director Kit McConnell was “very clear” in stating that any proposal including horse riding “would not be viewed favourably”.
As of now, it’s important to stress that horse riding is still part of the pentathlon as a discipline. But its fate depends on whether its replacement gets voted through at the next UIPM Congress, which is being held on 12th and 13th November.
Why has the UIPM chosen obstacle racing as the replacement?
IOC president Thomas Bach set the end of 2022 as the deadline for the UIPM to decide on a discipline to replace horse riding. The international federation wasted no time getting underway, assembling a working group comprised of Olympic pentathletes, high-level administrators and even media personnel.
Each proposal had to comply with 13 guiding principles to be considered, including criteria such as global accessibility, relevance amongst young people, and being attractive for TV audiences.
The UIPM received 61 different suggestions, ranging from orthodox options in cycling, to more eyebrow-raising proposals like drone racing and pillow fighting. Eventually, the field was narrowed down to two types of obstacle course racing, which would next undergo several testing events.
It was at this point that the World Obstacle federation began to collaborate with the UIPM to stage four trials of obstacle racing, which have taken place over six months in different countries around the world. Numerous young pentathletes have tested out different courses, with some incorporating elements from the popular ‘Ninja Warrior’ TV franchise.
Some 50 obstacles have been tested throughout the process, with the UIPM to choose which will make up the competitive course for each level of competition, whether it’s at the Olympics or a World Cup event.
Officials have been keen to emphasise that obstacle racing is good fit for a sport that demands its athletes to be elite across a range of disciplines.
“It’s a complement to almost any other sport,” says World Obstacle president Ian Adamson. “Pentathletes are very good athletes in multiple disciplines. So they already have the basic skills and requirements to do arguably any sport. This one happens to be one that puts a lot of skills together in one place.”
After the fourth obstacle course racing test in Poland, UIPM secretary general Shiny Fang highlighted that obstacle racing would help make pentathlon more accessible.
“With only a very small number of participants, the sport cannot survive. That’s why we need the sport to be reshaped to suit more people, while we also have a very elite programme.
“I think this is supposed to be the direction because if you don’t have an entry to the sport, then we are disappearing. Now we are opening the entry, so everyone can get in.”
Officials have also been quick to highlight that obstacle racing will attract a younger audience, aligning with the IOC’s own push to appeal to the next generation through different sports.
Fang also says that obstacle course racing “absolutely” is easier to organise from a financial perspective. She explains that renting equipment for an obstacle course would cost national federations a minimum fee of US$5,000, with more complex layouts similar to Ninja Warrior costing up to US$40,000.
She says this would be significantly cheaper than horse riding, with the costs “easily exceeding” US$100,000 to pay for horse rentals and the necessary facilities for a World Cup-level event.
Why is the UIPM’s selection process controversial?
When it first emerged that show jumping had been removed by the UIPM, more than 650 athletes issued a vote of no confidence in the federation’s current leadership.
Then, on the same day that the UIPM publicly announced that it would be testing obstacle course racing, several elite modern pentathletes sent a signed letter to the IOC under the Pentathlon United banner. It called for an independent investigation into how the UIPM removed the equestrian discipline in a ‘heavy-handed and unconstitutional manner’.
Speaking in Poland, Schormann defended the use of the force majeure clause.
“That was a clear decision,” he said. “We made something by French and Monegasque law. Everything was done by legal part.”
“We had a congress last year and the motion was accepted by 82 per cent. Suddenly we had to give a message to the [IOC Olympic] Programme Commission so we had no time and based on Covid and all the things changing.
“Otherwise, we could have had the congress in 2020 and a completely other procedure but we were just in a rush. It’s all forgotten that we had been together in the world under special circumstances to make some decisions and prepare something. So we did it properly.”
In July, a Pentathlon United survey found that more than 92 per cent of pentathletes wanted to keep equestrian. Of the 213 respondents, 68.5 per cent were current athletes. At the fourth trial, the pressure group posted pictures and videos of young pentathletes calling for riding to stay beyond Paris 2024.
The reigning men’s Olympic champion Joseph Choong feels that the UIPM has misrepresented the IOC’s views. Days after a UIPM press conference, he claims he has a statement from McConnell denying that the IOC explicitly called for riding’s removal, contradicting Hefny’s assertions.
“To me, it seems very likely that the UIPM have basically told them: ‘Oh, we can’t make horse riding work,’” Choong tells SportsPro. “And so now, UIPM, despite being the ones that instigated this change in, are trying to point the finger at the IOC, so that they have a reason to do it.
“I think that’s very misleading. They’ve just falsified the whole process, they’ve not been transparent with any of the communications that they’ve handed out.”
Choong believes that pentathlon’s leaders should instead reach out to the International Federation of Equestrian Sports (FEI), which would provide its own horses to improve accessibility going forward.
“I think we need time and investment into drawing connections with the FEI, as any country they’re involved in has horses,” he continues. “From what I’ve heard, they’ve been in conversations…and they’re very keen to help pentathlon as well.”
While the IOC is yet to comment on its discussions with the UIPM or any pentathlete, McConnell has implied that the organisation is listening to the concerns of Pentathlon United.
At a news conference in September, he said: “I think we should consider that there’s two aspects to this also: there’s the elected athlete commission voice and there’s other athletes which may or may not have the same opinion, which also have a voice.”
To what extent have the UIPM and World Obstacle been aligned in the past?
In December 2021, after show jumping had been removed but before the selection process for its replacement had begun, 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist Pavel Tymoshchenko suggested that obstacle racing was already lined up to join the modern pentathlon.
On Facebook, the Ukrainian highlighted the status of Robert Stull, a former US pentathlete who now sits on the UIPM executive board. Stull was also a member of the central board of World Obstacle.
However, World Obstacle quickly edited its website following Stull’s selection to the UIPM fifth discipline working group. While Stull no longer has ties to World Obstacle, it raised eyebrows among the pentathlon community, especially when obstacle racing was chosen.
Theories that the two federations might be closer intertwined were further fuelled by a letter, which SportsPro has obtained a copy of, from MPADK to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and UIPM member federations. The letter was attached to a 2016 proposal by World Obstacle to merge with the UIPM.
MPADK head Benny Elmann-Larsen wrote in the letter that Schormann had asked him to examine ‘the validity and attractiveness of such a merger’, which would have seen the obstacle racing federation integrated within the UIPM. Elmann-Larsen stated that the original agreement was ‘almost a carte blanche’ for World Obstacle to ‘gradually take over UIPM lead’.
When asked about this, Schormann denies that the proposal made it that far.
He says: “I said, ‘sorry, not for me, there must be clear discussion with all the stakeholders.’ I stopped it immediately.
“I got the contract and said, ‘sorry, it is for the basket.’”
Adamson, who would have become a UIPM member with no voting right under the original proposal, also denies anything came of the approach.
“If they are saying that that [proposed merger] led to this [test events for a fifth obstacle discipline], that is nonsense, that came out of the IOC,” he says. “World Obstacle did talk to many international federations early on because we were trying to figure out if it was feasible to have a sport and, if so, how should it be done.
“We’ve explored those possibilities, so talked to pentathlon, triathlon, athletics, all sorts of federations in 2015 and 2016. We did have a conversation with pentathlon and it ended.”
How much support does the UIPM have from the pentathlon community?
The fallout has been huge and the sport’s stakeholders are divided.
In Poland, Schormann vigorously defended his leadership throughout the process and claimed the athletes have been consulted at every stage.
“It’s always addressed that we are not asking the athletes,” he said. “This is absolutely not true. From the beginning, the athletes have been involved in all the decisions and all questions and analysis.
“We are very democratic in our union. The IOC knows this so they gave us a really good ranking in good governance. If you don’t listen to the athletes, you are lost.”
There are others who aren’t supportive of Schormann. Recently, Alex Watson, a former pentathlete aligned with Pentathlon United, launched a rival UIPM leadership bid, pledging to keep horse riding in the sport if successful.
“If you need to not be truthful about how this has been done, that clearly shows that the process hasn’t been open and transparent,” Watson tells SportsPro.
" You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. The athletes aren’t supportive of this at all. The only ones [supportive of the change] are the ones who are being controlled directly by the UIPM."
Alex Watson, former Australian Olympic Pentathlete
“They keep saying that obstacle racing is going to be hugely popular with youth. The evidence doesn’t bear it out. The young athletes in the sport, some of them 16 or 17 years old, they’re all saying ‘keep riding’. Riding is far more popular amongst youth than obstacle racing.”
Choong supports Watson’s bid and is sceptical about the changes the UIPM’s current leaders are proposing.
“My worry is by changing sport, why is there any more guarantee that we’ll be able to access that audience and bring it into the sport, in comparison with what we’ve failed to do with horse riding?
“The leadership has proven incapable over the last two decades of attracting new audience members. They hailed the laser run as this new amazing concept that was going to gather loads of crowds and revenue.
“While I think the laser run is a big success, they’ve failed to market it in a way that has gained attention. My biggest fear is that it doesn’t matter what product the sport chooses to be, in the end we don’t have the expertise at the top to market it and expand our sport.”
How did young pentathletes testing the obstacle course feel about the discipline?
Away from the sport’s politics, those who took part in the final trial comprised of young athletes who were competing in the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon Junior World Championships, as well as several obstacle racing specialists.
Unlike previous tests, the 60-metre course was built indoors, ironically in a building used for horses housed next door. But instead of trotting hooves, observers instead heard determined grunts and encouraging cheers as participants acclimatised themselves to a new challenge.
Poland’s Adam Pierzchała won the first of the men’s finals. Coming off the course, the 19-year-old was positive about his first encounter with the obstacles.
“I prefer this to riding as we have to be in the Olympics and we have to change something,” he said. “I think this is a good change for us. I think this is more enjoyable to watch on television as it’s fast and entertaining.”
In the women’s category, Hungarian bronze medallist Orsolya Varga took a slightly different view.
“I am really sad that we are quitting riding, but I am happy that we are doing this new obstacle racing and happy to get the bronze medal,” Varga said.
“[Horse riding] was one of the reasons [that got me into modern pentathlon] and I was in love with horses when I was a child, but I think obstacle racing is also a really good sport and I am looking forward to doing it.”
After the trial, the UIPM reported it had received a 88 per cent satisfaction rate for the obstacle tests, surveying the young athletes who participated across the four events.
What’s next?
The UIPM Congress will take place this weekend, when there will be a vote on the motion to make obstacle course racing part of the modern pentathlon.
This year’s congress is set to take place online, having originally been scheduled to be held in Guatemala. The UIPM has cited Covid-19 restrictions and expensive costs for the change, and Schormann has defended the move.
“Covid is coming back,” he says. “We have to be fair to those who are rich and those that don’t have so much money. If you just give to dominating countries, that’s not fair, that’s not democratic.”
If the proposal is pushed through, the UIPM will take it to the IOC and submit it to be reviewed. Should that get the green light, the UIPM will be confident that it has secured pentathlon’s place at the Olympics for years to come.
While it won’t be in place for Paris, preparations will undoubtedly be started immediately as obstacle course running gears up for a debut at LA 2028. Namely, to help those hoping to compete in 2028, to transition out of horse riding and towards obstacle racing.
But for others like Choong and Watson, it could lead to the end of the sport they’ve loved, as they’ve always known it to be.
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