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Annika Schleu, in tears on "Saint Boy"
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
Despite its name, modern pentathlon is one of the traditional Olympic sports.
He has been part of the Olympic program since 1912, and his concept of combining five sports from the military tradition comes from Baron De Coubertin himself, the founder of the modern games.
In the past, the future of competition has been discussed more often.
In order to adapt the pentathlon to today, the rules have been modified several times and made more suitable for television.
Only riding, the third pentathlon competition, has been forgotten.
A real drama about the leading German Annika Schleu took place on the riding course in the women's competition, a drama that was supposed to reopen the debate about the sub-discipline of riding.
The 31-year-old Berliner was clearly on the gold course after fencing and swimming, she made her strengths in the so-called laser run, the final combination of running and shooting, which ended the pentathlon for several years and has actually shrunk the pentathlon to a four-way fight the very clear favorite.
But then there was riding.
In the modern pentathlon, the athletes are drawn for the horses, which has led to sometimes strange, sometimes daunting scenes in the course for many years.
Horses that are obviously overwhelmed or do not harmonize at all with the rider refuse to jump on the course or ride in the middle of the obstacles.
Apart from the fact that this often completely upsets the ranking, these are scenes that keep the pentathlon uproaring.
Passed through to the penultimate rank
Like this time with Annika Schleu.
The leader had been assigned the horse "Saint Boy", a horse that had previously refused to serve under a Russian pentathlete and which everyone clearly saw disturbed about the competition.
Normally in similar cases there is the possibility of using a replacement horse - but according to the rules only if the horse has actively refused beforehand or the rider has thrown off twice.
"Saint Boy" did not do this, but simply showed himself to be completely unwilling or unable to walk on the course at all.
Schleu had tears in her eyes even before the actual ride because she couldn't get a grip on "Saint Boy".
This continued in the course, the horse looked completely disoriented, but the rider did not give up, only after four refusals was she disqualified, the unrestrained weeping Schleu in the saddle was passed from first place to 31st and penultimate place.
“She really just had to ride through somehow, with five drops if you like, she would still have been in front, as good as she is,” commented national coach Kim Raisner, who was also struggling with tears two Olympic Games happened in a row. "
In 2016 in Rio, Lena Schöneborn, the 2008 Olympic champion in Beijing, met the same fate.
She too had to say goodbye to the Olympic gold medal because her horse shied away.
Schöneborn was sitting in the stands in Tokyo, she too had to calm down before she could comment in front of the television camera.
"One on one, the situation I saw in Rio," she shook her head.
"It's the worst worst case." Before the ride, Raisner himself had called to Schleu the advice: "Hit it, hit it right." Schleu then hit the horse on the flank, used the whip, but that didn't improve anything.
An agony to watch, but at least as much an agony for the horse.
In all other four disciplines, it depends on the athletes' sole ability, the ability to combine different sporting skills, but riding, the requirement to form a unit with a horse within just 20 minutes of entry time, that is not just on the edge of arbitrariness.
It does not do justice to the sport, above all it does not do justice to the horses, it could not be demonstrated more clearly than at Schleus' appearance.
If there was anything wrong with this modern pentathlon, it was this equestrian competition.
Olympic dressage champion Isabell Wert made a clear statement on Friday: »Pentathlon has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with riding.
The horses are a means of transport to which the athletes have no relation.
You could just as easily give them a bike or a scooter. "
It was not the first time that equestrian sport made negative headlines at the Tokyo Games.
In eventing, the horse of the Swiss Robin Godel was put to sleep after it was injured in the cross-country ride.
At the Games in Paris in 2024, they want to change the modern pentathlon again. Then there should be a compact competition within 90 minutes. Riding is held fast.
