The date is a milestone. On Thursday August 3, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) celebrated its 75th anniversary from its headquarters in Monaco. The body, chaired by the German Klaus Schormann, was founded in 1948 in Sandhurst Camberley, 50 km from London, where the Olympic Games were being held. Until August 3, 1948, the discipline was managed by an IOC commission. The birth of the UIPM was agreed by representatives of 16 National Olympic Committees, meeting at the Royal Military Academy. In three quarters of a century, the organization has had only five presidents, all of them European: three Swedes (Tor Wibom, Gustaf Dyrssen and Sven Thofelt), one Soviet (Igor Novikov), and the German Klaus Schormann, elected head of the UIPM in 1993. Since the creation of its international federation, modern pentathlon has mainly moved from a long format – five days of competition – to a much tighter formula, with the five disciplines contested in just 90 minutes at the Paris 2024 Games. The UIPM currently has 130 member national federations.
