PARIS – Katie Ledecky can dominate just about anyone in the world in the pool, but what about on a horse? LeBron James is one of the best basketball players in the world, but how would he cope with a sword in his hand? Simone Biles is an excellent gymnast, but what if she had to run a race while firing a laser gun?

The Olympics reward the best athletes in individual sports. But there is only one event – a strange little exception – that rewards the best athletes in multiple sports. Where else can you see the world’s best athletes compete in sword fighting, show jumping, shooting, running and swimming in 90 minutes?

There is something pure about the modern pentathlon. Like the heptathlon and decathlon, it judges the best athletes on a combination of skills. But it is also a decidedly off-kilter competition designed to crown the 19th century definition of the versatile athlete. There is a certain elegance to the five disciplines that make up the modern pentathlon; a truly modern pentathlon would probably include competitive eating, wordle and power slap.

Because of its archaic nature – and because the use of horses in sporting competitions has fallen completely out of fashion – the Paris Olympics will be the last time the modern pentathlon is held in its current format. The horse element of the pentathlon will be removed and replaced by an “American Ninja Warrior”-style obstacle course. And even that may not be enough to save the sport’s Olympic prospects; a place for the modern pentathlon on the list for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics is not yet guaranteed.

That would be a shame, because the modern pentathlon is exactly the kind of discipline that should be upheld at the Olympic Games.

How the Modern Pentathlon was created

The Modern Pentathlon was invented by Pierre de Coubertin, the French baron who created the Olympic Games. His goal was to test all elements of a man’s military skills. Until 2000, the Modern Pentathlon was reserved for men. The Modern Pentathlon even has its own little hypothetical backstory: Imagine a soldier trapped behind enemy lines. What would that soldier need to know and do to escape? Run, shoot, sword fight, swim and ride, assuming, of course, that he was captured before the invention of the automobile or the cell phone.

Originally contested over five days, the Modern Pentathlon was compressed into a single day starting with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. This year, after a preliminary fencing bout in the boxing arena, the Modern Pentathlon will take place over the course of about 100 minutes in the Versailles Equestrian Arena, a wild interplay of events so popular that the huge stands were sold out on Friday.

The modern pentathlon begins with a show jumping discipline, and this is where the pentathlon has run into its most troubled waters in recent years. Animal rights activists have long questioned and criticised the use of animals in human competitions for a number of reasons, starting with the safety and welfare of the horses.

Modern pentathlon spent much of the 2010s trying to justify its Olympic existence, and an incident in Tokyo in 2021 could well have spelled the end of the sport as an Olympic discipline.

Horses are randomly assigned to participants, who have about 20 minutes to bond with their equine friends. That didn’t work out so well in 2021, when German women’s coach Kim Raisner beat athlete Annika Schleu’s horse out of frustration. The incident outraged pretty much everyone from athletes to activists to organizers, and the future of the sport was clear: after Paris 2024, there will be no more horses.

Officials from the International Union of Modern Pentathlon (UIPM) examined about 60 possible replacement disciplines and finally settled on steeplechase. Officials earlier this week sought to portray the move as an attempt to appeal to youth, rather than a way to distance the sport from allegations of horse cruelty.

“This is a perfect product for the television audience with similar facilities,” said Shiny Fang, Secretary General of the UIPM. “The horses obviously do not need to be fed and there are already many special obstacle clubs with all these facilities. Many athletes can already train and compete.”

A tribute to the horses

Friday’s competition begins with a tribute to the horses at their farewell performance – “Today we salute our horses and the men and women who ride them” – but if the horses are aware that this is their swan song, they don’t let it show.

A dozen obstacles are set up on the white sand of the riding arena’s inner field, and a bell rings just after 1 p.m. to begin the event. Riders must guide their new equine friend over 12 of the jumps, with points awarded for grace, positioning and speed. Most horses complete the course without incident, although a few fall short and knock over crossbars or, in one particularly unfortunate case, an entire post. Riders pat their horses on the neck as they exit the arena, and then they have just a few minutes to prepare for the next task: fencing.

The key to Modern Pentathlon is speed; events come and go in rapid succession. There is no time for extended tournaments; it is fight and go. The preliminary bout, which takes place the day before the semi-finals, is the fencing equivalent of speed dating – each competitor competes against every other competitor in a series of one-touch bouts. This sets them up for the next day’s events.

On Friday, workers at the arena raise an entire fencing stadium out of the sand — filled with air like a giant bouncy castle — after the horses finish. From there, the fencing goes from speed dating to survival and advancement — the 18th-ranked competitor takes on the 17th-ranked competitor, and the winner of that bout faces the 16th-ranked competitor, and so on. The first few bouts are all calculated, but then No. 10 seed Emiliano Hernandez of Mexico goes on a run, winning five bouts in a row before falling. No. 5 seed Valentin Prades of France wows the crowd by topping the standings and knocking off the top four seeds to win the event … and then it’s off to the pool.

The 200-meter swim is the middle event of the pentathlon, and yes, there is a makeshift pool in the Versailles arena right next to the riding arena. However, it’s a 25-meter pool – the size of an average neighborhood pool – which means competitors have to swim eight lengths in a pool that should have a lifeguard, deck chairs, and a few kids ready to play Marco Polo.

The last two disciplines – running and shooting – are combined into one discipline called “Laser Run,” which is cool, but not as cool as the name suggests. Modern Pentathlon has moved from pistols to air pistols and lasers over the course of its existence in the very sensible name of safety, and competitors are given a few minutes after drying off to set up with the lasers.

Their goal in these final two competitions: run 3,000 meters – just under three kilometers – with four stops at shooting ranges. They must hit five targets at each stop before they can move on. And they must also endure a staggered start – competitors behind the leaders must wait up to 90 seconds after the leader’s start, depending on how far behind they are in the rankings at the start of the competition.

And then the Modern Pentathlon turns into chaos. Runners race around a winding 600-meter track in the center of the arena, stopping to fire at each turn. Their shooting scores are shown on the scoreboard, and when a French shooter records all the green dots—meaning all the targets have been hit—the crowd erupts in cheers.

The result of the staggered start is that there is no comparison of times and no calculation of how far behind another competitor might be in a race. Whoever crosses the finish line first wins, period. And they are ready to flee behind 19th century enemy lines if that ever becomes a problem.

You see, the Modern Pentathlon is a deeply strange discipline, a competition still searching for its identity. It can’t decide whether it should be a demanding test of athletic ability or a fervent scene pulsing with club music. The music at the arena on Friday ranged from soothing spa-style tunes to the ominous West Coast rap of “Still DRE” to the bouncy Europop of Gala’s “Freed from Desire.” It didn’t make much sense, but it didn’t really have to.

The Modern Pentathlon is everything the Olympics should be: quirky, challenging, easy to have an opinion about but difficult to master yourself. It will be interesting to see if the sport can evolve to be part of the Olympics beyond 2028. Horses won’t be part of the next leg of the pentathlon’s journey, but hopefully everyone else will be.