pentathlete criteria:

five (5) diverse sports:

How do you become good at five very diverse sports? The skills required for pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, showjumping and running seem an odd combination. How do you train for something like this and how does a modern pentathlete get started? Let's begin by breaking the sport into two blocks. Firstly, the physical events - swimming and running. And, secondly, the skilled events - pistol shooting, fencing and showjumping. This doesn't mean there are no skills required to excel at running or swimming or that an event such as fencing is not physically demanding. It just provides us with a means to identify the core ingredients for making up our ideal pentathlete.

five sports in one day:

By its nature...five events in one day...modern pentathlon is a test of physical and mental endurance. In looking for potential talent we are first drawn to athletes with a swimming background. Why? Because, young swimmers (say, between 14-18 years-of-age) with several years of squad training behind them are used to the tough demands of endurance training, have usually developed high level cardio-vascular (heart-lung) fitness and have attained good all-round body strength. These attributes are a great basis for future success in modern pentathlon. In reality, a pentathlete can come from any sporting background. Successful international competitors have been former fencing, running, riding and shooting specialists. There have also been examples of pentathletes who excelled at seemingly unrelated sports before trying to master this five event challenge. But, when it comes to choosing "the ideal stuff", it's hard to go past a good swimmer who has ability at running and the reflexes, hand-eye co-ordination and temperament to master the pistol shooting, fencing and showjumping phases.

any age:

Athletes, at whatever age, enter modern pentathlon competition through the run-swim (variously termed biathlon, aquathon, splash-and-dash and now, biathlé). They may also enter the individual disciplines or combinations of disciplines; for example, run, swim and shoot, whilst they gain the necessary experience to compete in all five stages of the sport. In full training the elite modern pentathlete must be supremely fit. A typical training day might involve 6-8 hours of exercise in three or more disciplines. For example, a dawn two hour swim session to start the day followed by riding training, 10 kilometres or more running and perhaps fencing or shooting for up to two hours or more hours to close out the day. At peak training times this schedule may be a seven days a week routine.

rewards:

However, with the hard work comes rewards. To reach a level of excellence in five diverse sports is a supreme achievement. The diversity of training for modern pentathlon counteracts the possibility of boredom for the athlete and delivers a sportsperson of excellent physique, health and an attitude of sport-for-life! The challenge is a demanding one but don't be discouraged from giving it a go! Many successful pentathletes were late developers in sport and started with humble abilities in only one of the five disciplines. Time and persistence are often superior to talent alone and modern pentathlon rewards those who are prepared to stick to a goal.