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.
Athletics has been contested at every Summer Olympics since the birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics. The athletics program traces its earliest roots to events used in the ancient Greek Olympics. The modern program includes track and field events, road running events, and race walking events. Cross country running was also on the program in earlier editions but it was dropped after the 1924 Summer Olympics.
These are the results of athletics competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics. 30 events were contested, all for men only.
Knut Andreas "Knatten" Lindberg was a Swedish athlete who competed at the 1906 Intercalated Games and the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympics. He had his best results in 1906 when he won a silver medal in javelin throw and finished fifth in ancient pentathlon and sixth in the 100 m race. He won another silver medal in 1912, with the Swedish 4 × 100 m relay team, but failed to reach the finals in all his other events in 1908 and 1912, which included sprint and javelin throw.
Karl Hugo Wieslander was a Swedish athlete. He set the inaugural world record in the pentathlon in Gothenburg in 1911 with a score of 5516 points. The following year, he finished second in the decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, 688 points behind Jim Thorpe. In 1913, after it was discovered that Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball for a minor league team, Thorpe was disqualified for not being an amateur. Wieslander was declared the winner of the 1912 Olympics event and awarded the gold medal, which he refused to accept. In 1982, Thorpe was reinstated by the IOC with Hugo Wieslander as joint winners of the 1912 Olympic decathlon. The IOC announced 15 July 2022 that Thorpe's gold medal had been reinstated and Wieslander, whose family had considered Thorpe the rightful winner, became the silver medalist.
Eric Otto Valdemar Lemming was a Swedish track and field athlete who competed at the 1900, 1906, 1908 and 1912 Olympics in a wide variety of events, which mostly involved throwing and jumping. He had his best results in the javelin throw, which he won at the 1906–1912 Games, and in which he set multiple world records between 1899 and 1912. His last record, measured at 62.32 m, was ratified by the International Association of Athletics Federations as the first official world record.
Finland competed at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium for the first time as a fully independent state. It competed independently in 1908 and 1912 as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. 63 competitors, 62 men and 1 woman, took part in 51 events in 9 sports.
Venne "Verner" Järvinen was a Finnish track and field athlete, who competed mostly in throwing events. He won the gold medal in the Greek-style discus in the 1906 Intercalated Games, and the bronze in the 1908 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Finnish Olympic medalist in athletics. He won the Finnish championship in Greek style discus three times in 1909–1911 and held the national record in discus and hammer throw.
Sven Otto Nilsson was a Swedish athlete who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Móric "Mór" Kóczán was a Slovak–Hungarian athlete and Calvinist pastor. Specialized for the throwing events, his best results came in the javelin throw, having won five Hungarian championship titles between 1911 and 1918. Kóczán competed for Hungary at the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics. He produced his best performance in 1912 by winning the bronze medal in the javelin throw event.
The men's discus throw was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. The competition was held on Friday, July 12, 1912. Forty-one discus throwers from 15 nation competed. NOCs could enter up to 12 athletes. The event was won by Armas Taipale of Finland, the nation's first medal in the men's discus throw. Richard Byrd took silver and James Duncan took bronze to continue the United States' podium streak at five consecutive Games.
Imre Mudin was a Hungarian teacher, track and field athlete and soldier. An all-around sportsman, he won national titles in shot put, discus throw and javelin throw as well. Mudin was present at the 1908 Summer Olympics and the 1912 Summer Olympics, achieving his best result, a sixth place in shot put at the latter one.
Folke Fredrik Fleetwood was a Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Walter Edward Bonhote Henderson was a British track and field athlete who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Emil Welz was a German track and field athlete who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born in Finsterwalde.
Miroslav Šustera was a Czech track and field athlete and wrestler who competed in the 1906 Summer Olympics, in the 1908 Summer Olympics, and in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born and died in Prague.
The men's pentathlon event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1924 Summer Olympics. It was the third and last appearance of a pentathlon at the Olympics. The competition was held on Monday, July 7, 1924. Thirty pentathletes from 17 nations competed.
The Ancient Olympic pentathlon was an athletic contest at the Ancient Olympic Games, and other Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. The name derives from Greek, combining the words pente (five) and athlon (competition). Five events were contested over one day, starting with the stadion, followed by the javelin throw, discus throw and long jump, and ending with wrestling. While pentathletes were considered to be inferior to the specialized athletes in a certain event, they were superior in overall development and were some of the most well balanced of all the athletes. Their training was often part of military service—each of the five events was thought to be useful in battle.
The javelin throw at the Summer Olympics is one of four track and field throwing events held at the multi-sport event. The men's javelin throw has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1908, being the last of the current throwing events to feature at the Olympics after the shot put, discus throw and hammer throw. The women's event was first contested at the 1932 Olympics, becoming the second women's throws event after the discus in 1928.
Combined events at the Summer Olympics have been contested in several formats at the multi-sport event. There are two combined track and field events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's decathlon and a women's heptathlon.
