Pentathlon

Brains, luck and hours of study paid off for Harry C. Fulton Middle School students who recently became Orange County's pentathlon champions. "Winning adds another accomplishment for the school," said Kimi Bacon, a member of the eighth-grade team. "It boosts your self-esteem and confidence." More than 40 county middle schools participated in the event last month, in which the county was divided into two regions, with seventh- and eighth-grade students competing.

A lot of people are scratching their head today over the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop wrestling from the Summer Olympics, starting with the 2020 Games. The sport many people believed should have been dropped, modern pentathlon, survived. How could this be? Well, this might be a clue: Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president, is vice president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union and a member of the IOC board. “We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others,” Samaranch told the Associated Press.

Lori Norwood, the favorite to win the gold medal in women's modern pentathlon, pulled out of the competition after suffering a knee injury during the fencing portion Wednesday at the Shrine Auditorium. The 1989 world champion from Bryan, Tex., Norwood says she twisted her right knee while trying to avoid an opponent's attack. Her coach, Janusz Peciak, and Bill Hanson, the executive director of the U.S. Modern Pentathlon Assn.

LONDON - It's not quite the fraction of a second that separates medalists from also-rans in other sports, but in modern pentathlon, where the scores accumulated are in the mid-four figures, U.S. competitor Margaux Isaksen missed out on a bronze by a mere eight points. The women's modern pentathlon, the final competition of the Summer Olympics, handed out its medals just hours before the closing ceremony Sunday night. Gold went to Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania, who finished with 5,408 points, an Olympic record.

Bob Nieman made his third Olympic team at the age of 40 Wednesday, winning the U.S. Olympic team trials in the modern pentathlon. "It feels wonderful, finally," Nieman said. "They all thought I was nuts." Nieman, who won the U.S. National Pentathlon championship in June, finished first in the trials with a combined event total of 10,598 points. He defeated second-place Mike Gostigian by 40 points after five days of competition in riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running.

The Olympics specializes in niche sports, and modern pentathlon occupies an especially distinctive niche. Modern pentathlon involves five disciplines: shooting, fencing, swimming, horseback riding and running. The idea is to mimic a soldier ordered to deliver a message -- on the back of an unfamiliar horse, through a duel with swords, a shootout, a swim across a river and a cross-country run.

Latvia defeated the United States in the 13-hour fencing competition, the opening discipline of this five-event sport. The three U.S. pentathletes were doing well, hanging near the top until they encountered Latvia and lost, 8-1, in the 17th round. Hungary, traditionally strong in fencing, placed first in team standings with 2,796 points. Poland is second and Mexico third. The United States enters the second day of competition in fourth place, tied with Latvia.

It was an offer that the men of the U.S. Olympic modern pentathlon team couldn't refuse. Money. From strippers in Kansas. "Hey, beer companies support the Olympics," said Mike Gostigian of Newtown Square, Pa. "Why not exotic dancers?" The latest donation to the three-man U.S. team came courtesy of the Flamingo Club, a topless bar in Lawrence, Kan.

The vague feeling that the big old two-story frame house with the covered wooden porch would look more appropriate in the Midwest is confirmed with a ring of the doorbell. "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame . . . " the doorbell chimes, deep in the heart of Texas. But there is no answer to the chimes. The note on the door says that Bob Nieman has gone fencing and will be back soon. True to his word, Nieman is back soon. He has been to fencing practice and to the stables.

David Kirkwood's job history does not lack variety. Among a myriad of occupations, he has been a juvenile hall counselor, a launch crewman at a nuclear missile site and an actor in television and films. But his most memorable work was performed on the world stage more than 30 years ago. As an awe-struck competitor in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Kirkwood helped the U.S. win a silver medal in the modern pentathlon, an event with a long Olympic history but no future.

LONDON -- Modern pentathlon has been in the Olympics since 1912, when Baron Pierre de Coubertin thought soldiers and cavalrymen needed their own event. He came up with the modern version (there had been pentathlon in the ancient Greek Olympics) that included fencing, swimming, shooting, horseback riding and running over the course of five days. De Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, probably didn't envision a Mexican food stand at the riding grounds hawking burritos and chips and salsa, but, hey, times change.

The Duplass filmmaking brothers have turned sibling rivalry into an extreme sport for "The Do-Deca-Pentathlon," hitting the brother-lode with this fractious comedy about two sibs settling old grudges. Co-writers/directors Jay and Mark show an uncanny feel for what the growing pains between brothers can look like and how the bruises can linger. Thematically, it continues the Duplass tradition of taking on the trials of family relationships. It's the competitive juices between boys that continue to boil into adulthood that is preoccupying the filmmakers this time.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND : An Olympic athlete used a specially rigged epee to fake results during a pentathlon. Today's legend reminds me of the long-running crime series, "Columbo. " The series was set up so that the beginning of each episode would show us the criminals seemingly pull off a "perfect murder" and then the rest of the show would bring in the seemingly ineffectual Lt. Columbo, who would solve the murder while we see the murderer du jour (almost always a well known actor or actress)

The Olympics specializes in niche sports, and modern pentathlon occupies an especially distinctive niche. Modern pentathlon involves five disciplines: shooting, fencing, swimming, horseback riding and running. The idea is to mimic a soldier ordered to deliver a message -- on the back of an unfamiliar horse, through a duel with swords, a shootout, a swim across a river and a cross-country run.

The International Olympic Committee, which two years ago was threatening to cut baseball, softball and modern pentathlon, announced Monday that all 28 sports now in the Summer Games will stay in the Olympics at least through the Beijing Games in 2008. IOC President Jacques Rogge made the announcement in a meeting here with top officials from 28 international sports governing bodies. Aldo Notari of Italy, president of the international baseball federation, called the decision "a good victory."

Baseball, softball and the modern pentathlon won a reprieve Friday with the International Olympic Committee voting to postpone any decision about whether the three sports ought to be eliminated from the Olympic Games until after the 2004 Athens Games. An IOC panel had recommended the exclusion of the three sports in August. The recommendation was surprising if not stunning -- no sport has been cut from the Summer Games since after the 1936 Games, when the IOC chucked polo.

Bo Jackson competes in two sports. So does Rob Stull. The comparison stops there. Jackson's sports are baseball and football, totally unrelated activities. Stull's are modern pentathlon and fencing, which are closely related, since fencing is included in modern pentathlon. Jackson makes more than a million dollars a year. Stull makes a living at horse shows, putting fences back together. But Stull will do something this month that Jackson can't.

An International Olympic Committee task force, mindful of President Jacques Rogge's mandate to streamline the massive Summer Games, recommended dropping baseball, softball and modern pentathlon from the Olympics. Golf and seven-man rugby are their potential replacements.

David Kirkwood's job history does not lack variety. Among a myriad of occupations, he has been a juvenile hall counselor, a launch crewman at a nuclear missile site and an actor in television and films. But his most memorable work was performed on the world stage more than 30 years ago. As an awe-struck competitor in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Kirkwood helped the U.S. win a silver medal in the modern pentathlon, an event with a long Olympic history but no future.