Pentathlon

You probably have an idea of what a pentathlon is. The term pentathlon comes from the Greek words "penta" and "athlon" which means five, and contest, respectively. Simply put, pentathlon is an athletic event made up of five competitions. Pentathlon events include the stadion, wrestling, long jump, javelin throw, discus throw, 80 meter hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, 100 meters, and 200 meters. Yes these events are more than five, but because these were simply enumerated to show you the different events in a pentathlon. It can be classified into two. These are the modern pentathlon and the ancient pentathlon.

The ancient pentathlon events included the foot race of stadion. It also had wrestling, long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw. Those are the five events in the ancient Olympic pentathlon. Back then, these athletic events were not held separately except that there’s a separate competition of wrestling and stadion too. Those five competitions all make up one category which is in fact the pentathlon.

Back in the old Olympic pentathlon, the athletes competing in this sport, also known as the pentathletes were known to be the most skillful athletes of all. In fact, you’ll even hear about military pentathlon because the training that these athletes undergo is usually part of the military training back then. They often thought that those five events included in the ancient Olympic pentathlon were all useful in battles.

The old pentathlon is quite different when compared to the modern one. In ancient Olympics, whoever won the stadion was already considered the champion of all the rest of the games. In fact, the winner of the stadion will be the only name remembered. So if that man wins the discus and javelin throws as well as the long jump, they don’t continue on to the stadion and wrestling events that are part of the pentathlon. This may sound confusing but if you’d like to know more about the pentathlon scoring and such from the ancient Olympics, you can search through the internet. There you’ll also be able to find pictures of ancient pentathlon as well as that of the modern.

Modern pentathlon is made up of 80 meter hurdles which are sometimes replaced with 100 meters. There’s also the shot put, high and long jump, plus the 200 meters. The same goes for the women's pentathlon. Check the internet for more information as well as the popular pentathlon athletes like Jack Alexander pentathlon athlete from Canada or the 1988 Olympic women's pentathlon winner or 1988 Olympic pentathlon winner like Xu Yannei from China.