Robert Stull was elected President of the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) last November at the body's Congress in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The former athlete, who competed for the United States at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, took over from Dr. Klaus Schormann, who had been the body's uninterrupted head since 1993. He spoke at length to FrancsJeux ahead of the first World Cup stage of the year, which takes place in Cairo this week. A turning point in the history of modern pentathlon since this competition marks the debut of the new format, where the obstacle replaces horse riding, in the Elite category. Interview in two parts.
You led your first executive office at the end of January. What did you learn from it?
We have 13 new members of the board, and a new leader, me, after 30 years with Dr. Klaus Schormann. The suit is big! This meeting was a breath of fresh air. We have a new mantra, “athletes first,” and it makes sense. We changed the seating plan of the executive board, it may seem trivial but I placed the athlete representatives just to my right. No matter what the topic was, we started by asking their opinions. This is important to us. There was a lot of discussion over the four days. We had separate meetings to discuss business, marketing, technical, athletic aspects… But at the beginning and end, we brought everyone together so that everyone understood how the pieces fit together and how their scope of action affects the others. I know it sounds simple, but it is important when you have so many new faces as we start our road to Los Angeles. We also talked about storytelling and how we can present our sport so that people around the world can talk about it. We have great stories to share, so we need to make sure that those stories get out there.
What are the priorities of your mandate?
That’s an easy question! The first point is to make our sport more accessible and to make sure that every nation active in the UIPM is ready for the obstacle. We need courses, in every country. This is already the case for 80% of nations. I’m talking about a dedicated place, not a classic gym. Athletes have many places to practice, but here we are talking about dedicated courses, which correspond to the UIPM standards.
The second is to establish a viable commercial platform. Modern pentathlon was never intended to be a mass sport, but each discipline individually is. I have just spent a few weeks in Europe, I have attended fantastic presentations on the possibilities of monetizing and creating additional revenues by using our five disciplines together, or just some of them, in different combinations. We need a bigger pie and bigger revenues to be able to do what we want.
The third pillar of my mandate will be to deliver an exceptional Games in Los Angeles. It will be difficult to compete with Paris because those Games were a phenomenal success. The bar is very, very high! I have lived through 15 editions of the Olympic Games, including two in the United States, and Paris is by far number one. My job, and my responsibility, is to try to make LA special – even if we cannot reach Paris, impossible!
Obstacle Laser Run, available on mobile, allows you to play solo or with friends.
What levers can be considered at the commercial level?
I was very impressed by our sales team, very active. We are working in particular on eSports, it is essential for us. We already have a game, the Obstacle Laser Run, which is very popular and generates a lot of interest. The third edition will be released soon. I believe it will be at the eSports Olympics, we are well advanced on that. We can't wait! It is a gateway for people who probably will not practice the five sports, but who play video games. We can reach more people and it is a revenue opportunity for the federation. And this revenue goes directly to the national federations since our model is similar to that of the IOC. We are trying to develop a product that we can market. If you look at the TV audiences of the pentathlon at the Olympics, our two best days are about the same level as all the other sports on their two best days. Our numbers are really excellent. If you compare with a sport that is broadcast for a week, obviously, the gap is huge. However, if you take the two best days of everyone, you see that our sport is among the greats. eSports will allow us to go up another level.
You recently cited site selection for the Los Angeles Games as another critical mission. What are your options?
I'm always looking for that unique site. I always use this analogy: in Paris, was it about beach volleyball or the Eiffel Tower? I've seen a lot of beach volleyball in my life, but I really wanted to see it at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. I really did. The Eiffel Tower is just amazing, it's cool! I really wanted to see that. We're looking, and I hope we can find a special place. The organizing committee is very active, very involved. We had a meeting with them recently. What I can say is that it will be iconic. Right next to Malibu, Pepperdine University has been a set for a lot of movies. It could be an iconic site. When you're there and you look out over the ocean, you see miles of beach, whales, it's fantastic. That's California. Whatever site we choose, I can tell you it will be special.
