Olympic multidisciplinary -athlons other than the all-track-and-field Decathlon and Heptathlon are really quite odd.
I know the winter games’ Biathlon (skiing and marksmanship) started as a Norwegian army exercise, but the Triathlon (running, swimming and... bicycle riding) has always puzzled me.
And now Team GB has won gold for the men’s and women’s Pentathlon, which is... fencing, swimming, horseback riding (and you don’t bring your own horse), then finally running with a break between laps for target pistol shooting.
So that’s a sword fight, swimming, stealing a horse and a running gun battle.
Who invented this sport? Zorro?
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| This is the Team GB group for one event. |
Well done to Kate French and Joe Choong, who I expect to see teaming up to fight SPECTRE next.
Addendum:
So I was basically right! It’s an event designed to reflect the skills a soldier caught behind enemy lines needed pre-WWI. They could moderinise it by adding a parachute jump and a forced march with full kit.
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