1912 – 2024 The first and last riders in Olympic Modern Pentathlon
In 2024 at the Palais de Versailles, the Olympic modern pentathlon competition brought the curtain down on 112 years in which horses have played an integral part.
When the sport is next seen on the Olympic stage at Los Angeles 2028, the pentathletes will instead compete in an obstacle race.
In an article specially written for the Journal of Olympic History, 1968 Olympian Tom Lough joined forces with historian Kevin Witherspoon to examine the history of horses in the Modern Pentathlon in an article entitled “Galloping into History.”
In conjunction with this, we are pleased to announce that they have written two extra pieces for isoh.org detailing the first modern pentathlon experience and a detailed account of the very final ride. Links to each article are below.
Kai Jølver: The First Rider in the Olympic Modern Pentathlon
Élodie Clouvel, The Olympic Modern Pentathlon Rider
About the authors
*Tom Lough competed in Modern Pentathlon at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. He is currently producing “Go for the Five” a film about the history of modern pentathlon, he has been instrumental in reuniting members of the 1968 US Olympic team. Away from sporting competition, he was a soldier who trained at the famed United States Military Academy at West Point.
He was posted to Vietnam after graduation in 1964 and served another tour there after competing in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. By now a captain, he was shot down whilst travelling in a “Huey,” a US military helicopter. He had been leading a group of combat engineers and managed to clear a landing area for an infantry unit.
He later served in West Germany and left the army in 1974 with the rank of major.
He had studied for a master’s degree in geodetic sciences at Ohio State University and later read physics at the University of Virginia.
He worked as a teacher in schools and also as a university professor in Science Education at Murray State University in Kentucky.
*Kevin Witherspoon holds the Benjamin E Mays endowed Chair in the Department of History and Philosophy at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. He is well known for books which examine the geo political aspects of sport in the Cold War era, most notably — Before the Eyes of the World: Mexico and the 1968 Olympics and Defending the American Way of Life: Sport, Culture and the Cold War, co-edited with Toby Rider. Both of titles won the North American Society for Sport History annual book award.
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