From a military viewpoint, who will you modernize Modern Pentathlon, an Olympic sport that was supposed to showcase five skills a solider should have?
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So a recent news of Olympic draws many people's attention to Modern Pentathlon, an Olympic sport that was designed by Modern Olympic Game founder Pierre de Coubertin in 1912. It was to reflect the spirit of Classical Pentathlon (which was design to showcase an ancient Greek's soldier's essential skills in combat) and a tale of a Napoleonic era's cavalry officer trapped behind enemy-line ---- he was able to steal and ride an unfamiliar horse across enemy territory, killed enemies he encountered with pistol, killed an enemy officer with sword, swam across a river and ran a fair long distance when the horse was killed. The current competition format is as fallow:
- The fencing discipline uses the épée.
- The swimming discipline is a 200 m freestyle race.
- The riding discipline involves show jumping over a 350–450 m course with 12 to 15 obstacles. Competitors are paired with horses in a draw 20 minutes before the start of the event.
- The laser-run -- the combination of running and shooting events (they're separated before). each competitor ran four 800m laps, each preceded by hitting five targets with a pistol. In each of the four rounds of firing, athletes have to successfully shoot five targets, then resume running once they have five successful hits, or once the maximum shooting time of 50 seconds has expired.
All of these in one day.
Due to the changes in military during the last century, there are voices questioning that Modern Pentathlon needs to be modernized to better reflect the skills that are needed for today's soldiers. So from a military view point, how will you revamp/modernize Modern Pentathlon?
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