ANCIENT ORIGINS

WOMEN JOIN WORLD CREATED BY AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMEN

Until now the Olympic preserve of men, pentathlon opens to women in Sydney, and on an equal basis; there will be 16 men and 16 women taking part in the one-day event involving the five sports of shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running.

The combination sport was born from the bravery of a young French cavalry officer in Napoleon's ranks during the Franco-Prussian war in the 19th century, or so the legend goes. The officer was sent on a horse he had never before ridden to deliver a message. En route, he faced a fencing duel, shot the soldier who shot his horse. before running ahead on his mission and finally having to swim across a river to deliver his note. Pierre de Coubertin, the French IOC founding father, was so moved by the tale that he came up with the idea of a pentathlon, which was introduced at the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

A form of pentathlon was staged at the ancient Games in 708 BC. It included throwing the discus and javelin, jumping, running and wrestling.

From such classical and honourable beginnings, pentathlon fell into shame in 1968 when it became the first sport at a Games to produce a positive drugs test. Hans-Gunnar Liljenvall, of Sweden, was found to be over the blood-alcohol limit. He claimed he had had a few beers before the shooting to calm his nerves, but that was the very reason why he should not have been having the beers; steadying the nerves before a shooting event is deemed to be cheating since it can enhance performance unnaturally.

Four years later in Munich, a drugs scandal rocked the sport once again, when 14 athletes tested positive for tranquillisers before the shooting event. The drugs, though banned by the International Modern Pentathlon Union, were not on the IOC's list of banned substances so there were no disqualifications.

Cheating reared its head again in 1976, when Boris Onishchenko of Russia was found to have rigged his epee in the fencing event to score hits even when he did not touch his opponent. Before Boris found himself on a plane back to Moscow, he earned the nickname Boris "Disonishchenko".