A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words pente (five) and -athlon (competition). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of the Ancient Olympic Games. Five events were contested over one day for the Ancient Olympic pentathlon, starting with the long jump, javelin throwing, and discus throwing, followed by the stadion and wrestling. Pentathletes were considered to be among the most skilled athletes, and their training was often part of military service—each of the five events in the pentathlon was thought to be useful in war or battle.
Sheila Christine Taormina is an American former athlete who competed at four Olympics, and was the first woman to qualify for the Olympics in three different sports. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, she earned a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the women's 4×200-meter freestyle relay. She was inducted in 2009 into the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame, and in 2015 into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Georgina Claire Seccombe is a former modern pentathlete from Great Britain. Having been a reserve for the British team for the 2000 Summer Olympics, she was chosen for the team proper for the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, winning the bronze medal in the women's individual event. She retired from professional sport at the end of 2008 due to a career ending injury ahead of the 2008 Games.
Guatemala competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. In what was the country's fourteenth Summer Olympics since its debut at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. A total of twelve athletes competed in nine sports and twelve distinct events. It was the lowest number of participants for Guatemala since the 1980 Games in Moscow, USSR. Three of the twelve athletes were taking part in their second Olympics, and one of them, race walker Luis García, participated in his fourth. In any event that involved a progression through rounds, the Guatemalan athletes did not advance past the first round; as of the Beijing Olympics, there had yet to be a Guatemalan medalist. At the opening ceremony, badminton player Kevin Cordón bore Guatemala's flag.
Victoria Anatoliïvna Tereshchuk is a female former modern pentathlete from Ukraine. A competitor since 1999 she was awarded a bronze medal in the women's modern pentathlon event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing but was subsequently stripped of the medal after a doping re-test. She was World Champion in the individual and mixed relay events in 2011. For her World Championship victories, she was named Ukrainian Sportswoman of the Year and received the Order of Princess Olga in the Second Class. She is also the 2008 European Champion and competed at the 2004 and 2012 Olympic modern pentathlon tournaments, where she finished seventh and twenty-third respectively.
Katherine Fiona “Kate” Allenby MBE is a British modern pentathlete who competed in two Summer Olympics, taking the bronze medal at the 2000 Games and placing in 8th place in 2004. She has won medals at four World Championships, and after retiring from sport, she became a physical education teacher in Bath, England.
Aya Medany is an Egyptian modern pentathlete. She made her Olympic début at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, as the youngest competitor both in the Egyptian team and competing in the pentathlon.
Vakhtang "Vaho" Iagorashvili is a Soviet modern pentathlete, who has been a member of three different Olympic teams during his sporting career.
Egypt competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012, sending one of its largest delegations ever. A total of 110 Egyptian athletes participated in 83 events across 20 sports, with more women taking part than ever before. The nation's flagbearer in the opening ceremonies was Hesham Mesbah, a judoka who was Egypt's only medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Egypt won two medals during the course of the Games: Alaaeldin Abouelkassem earned silver in the men's foil, becoming the first competitor from an African nation to win a fencing medal, while Karam Gaber captured silver in the men's 84 kg Greco-Roman wrestling event. Two Egyptian weightlifters were awarded medals retroactively, after higher-ranked competitors were disqualified for doping: Abeer Abdelrahman took silver in the women's 75 kg event, while Tarek Yehia, received bronze in the men's 85 kg event. Among other achievements, Mostafa Mansour was the nation's first competitor in sprint canoeing while fencer Shaimaa El-Gammal became the first Egyptian female to appear in four editions of the Olympics.
Yane Márcia Campos da Fonseca Marques is a modern pentathlon athlete from Brazil. She became nationally known despite the obscurity of her sport in the country after winning a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the first Latin American to medal and the only woman to do so.
Margaux Isaksen is a modern pentathlete from the United States who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She placed 4th at the London Olympics after coming from behind but missed a medal.
Guy Kent Troy was an American modern pentathlete. He competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Mary Beth Iagorashvili is a retired American modern pentathlete. She is also the first U.S. female modern pentathlete and one of the twenty-four athletes to participate in the first-ever women's event at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In 1999, she married Georgian-born modern pentathlete Vakhtang Iagorashvili, who won an individual bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Kim Raisner is a retired modern pentathlete from Germany. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, where she finished fifth in the women's event with a score of 5,312 points. She won the bronze medal in the 1999 world modern pentathlon world championships.
Monica Pinette is a two-time Olympic modern pentathlete from Canada. She is one of the first female Canadian modern pentathletes, and the only indigenous athlete of (Métis) to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Her 13th-place finish overall at the 2004 Summer Olympics was Canada's best recorded performance in the modern pentathlon to date.
Kara Grant is a two-time Olympic modern pentathlete from Canada. She is one of the first female Canadian modern pentathletes, along with Monica Pinette, to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Leila Gyenesei is a Hungarian modern pentathlete and cross-country skier. She is a five-time medalist at the World Championships, and is currently ranked no. 19 in the world by the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM). She is also the daughter of István Gyenesei, former Minister of Local Government and chairman of the Association for Somogy party.
Sara Bertoli is an Italian modern pentathlete. She won two medals, silver and bronze, in the women's relay event at the 2002 and 2004 World Championships in San Francisco, California, United States and in Warsaw, Poland, respectively. Bertoli is a member of the modern pentathlon team for Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre, and is coached and trained by Luigi Filipponi.
Samantha Schultz is an American modern pentathlete. She won the silver medal in the women's individual event at the 2019 Pan American Games held in Lima, Peru. Achterberg and Jessica Davis also won the gold medal in the women's relay event.
