All About Olympic Modern Pentathlon- Jacks of all trades

The triathlon is the clear test of an athlete's endurance and the decathlon/heptathlon rewards versatility in track and field. But more than these events, the pentathlon tests an athlete's all-around ability; it involves several disciplines with no obvious links.

Few modern pentathlon competitors would be among the world-class in any of the individual disciplines, but to compete as a modern pentathlete at an elite level requires strength, nerve, endurance, mental toughness and mastery of disparate athletic skills - even more so now that the entire competition takes place over a draining 12-hour day.

The competition begins in the morning with shooting at targets 10 metres away. The pentathletes then head to the fencing piste for a series of epee fencing bouts, which last a minute or less. From there, they don their swimwear and jump in the pool for a 200m freestyle swim. They then spend 20 minutes getting to know a horse which they must then mount and guide around a show-jumping course. Then the running gear and shoes go on for a 3,000m cross-country race.

The pentathlon is exhausting, but there is little talk of performance enhancing drugs; the requirements of five disciplines are so different from one another, drugs could prove a handicap.

Until Sweden's Lars Hall won the gold medal in 1952, every Olympic modern pentathlon champion was a military officer. But even though the sport has moved into civilian ranks, it still seems to be the domain of the idle rich. After all, fencing and equestrian events aren't blue-collar or inner-city pastimes.

It takes at least a year for a bond of trust to develop between a horse and rider in equestrian show jumping, so you can imagine the potential for chaos in the show-jumping component of modern pentathlon, when the competitors have to coax a randomly assigned horse they've never ridden before over a series of obstacles.

It's the most unpredictable of many variables that go into the athlete's final score.

Plenty of great performances have been derailed by an unlucky draw of a horse - one that takes a disliking to the course or its rider - with the riders thrown or unable to cajole a horse into taking a jump. Russia's Edouard Zenovka was on his way to a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, when he drew a horse with a mind of its own, forcing him to settle for bronze.

According to French military lore, during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), French military commanders dispatched a cavalry officer to deliver an urgent message. Riding over treacherous terrain, he penetrated enemy territory. There, he encountered a sword-wielding soldier and the two men engaged in a duel. The officer prevailed, but had little cause to celebrate; while he was locked in a mortal combat another enemy had shot his horse. The officer responded by killing the man with a single bullet.

He continued his journey on foot and, after swimming across a raging river, delivered the message. In tribute to the officer's exploits, de Coubertin devised a sport that included shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian show jumping and cross-country running.