The old adage 'you learn something new everyday' most certainly applies to today. I learned about the Modern Pentathlon today. What is the Modern Pentathlon you say? Good question, I didn't know until about 20 minutes ago either.
The primetime Olympics were showing the US track team totally screwing up the relays so I headed in to check out what was live on the website (as I learned today in my Supervisory Training class this is simply an indication that I am a member of Generation X/Y and have a desperate need to multi-task). One of the live events was the shooting portion of the modern pentathlon. When I actually clicked on the video to watch nothing was happening at that moment so I clicked on the button to get more information on the sport since I really had no idea what it was other than I guessed from the penta- that it was 5 events.
I have now come to find out that the modern pentathlon is 5 events contested in one day:
1. Shooting: Air pistol (20 shots)
2. Fencing: Epee (35 bouts)
3. Swimming: 200m freestyle
4. Equestrian: Show jumping (15 jumps)
5. Running: 3000m (1.82 miles) cross-country
I've got to say that I'm pretty impressed. That is not an easy combination of things to do all in one day, and do well. The women's shooting had just started, so I looked at the historical videos and found the men's equestrian portion to watch for a while. When I started watching it I saw that most of the riders were either knocking down the rails or even falling off their horse! Not something I expected at the Olympics so I started reading through the details of each of the events. I found out thanks to the excellent explanation on the NBC site that the athletes are given 20 minutes to warm up on a horse they have never ridden that is provided for them by the competition organizers. And then they have to convince the horse they have just met to jump over 12 rails with them. No wonder so many horses weren't feeling it - they had just met the person riding on their back asking them to do it.
So I continue reading. The way they determine who wins is by awarding points for each of the first four events and then stagger starting people in the run depending on how many points they have going into it. Hence the person who did the best in the first four events leaves on the run and everyone is staggered behind them with a 1 second delay for every 4 points. The first person to the finish line wins. Super cool event! Where does one get into that I wonder? Hmmm, perhaps I need a new hobby. If nothing else it's a pretty 'name one thing most people don't know about you' answer :)
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