Australia and Olympic Modern Pentathlon

Australia has never won a medal in modern pentathlon, although it came close in Tokyo in 1964 with Peter Macken finishing fourth in the individual event and the team of Macken, Don McMiken and Duncan Page placed fifth. Macken competed at five Olympic Games from Rome in 1960 to Montreal in 1976. The first Australian to compete in the modern pentathlon was Forbes Carlile, in Helsinki. Carlisle went on to become a world-famous swimming coach.

Alexander Parygin who represented Australia at Athens 2004 won Olympic gold in Atlanta in 1996 whilst representing Kazakhstan. In 2004, Parygin, who was making a comeback to the sport, finished 27th.

Olympic History

Modern Pentathlon entered the Olympic program in Stockholm in 1912. The sport was the invention of Pierre de Coubertin who had twice tried unsuccessfully to convince the International Olympic Committee to agree to its inclusion as an Olympic sport prior to receiving the “green light” in 1911.

From 1912 until London 1948, the event was only for individuals. In Helsinki in 1952, a three-man team event was added to the individual event. Both events were contested until the team event was dropped after Barcelona in 1992. Atlanta in 1996 saw the duration of the event drop back to one day, from the previous four or five days to make the competition more exciting for spectators.

Gold Medal Winner from the Past Three Olympic Games

Men - Individual
Atlanta 1996 - Alexandr PARYGIN (KAZ)
Sydney 2000 - Dmitri SVATKOVSKY (RUS)
Athens 2004 - Andrey MOISEEV (RUS)

Women - Individual
Atlanta 1996 - not held
Sydney 2000 - Stephanie COOK (GBR)
Athens 2004 - Szuzsann VOROS (HUN)