UIPM statement: UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Final

UIPM acknowledges receipt of a letter from six athletes sent via the UIPM Athletes Committee today (19 June 2023), and issues the following statement:

UIPM has a duty of care covering all participants in UIPM competitions and takes its responsibilities across athlete welfare and other safety aspects extremely seriously.

The contents of this letter will be fully examined and will form part of a comprehensive review into the organisation of the UIPM 2023 Pentathlon World Cup Final. This has already been initiated through UIPM’s internal post-competition debrief process.

UIPM has taken steps to improve communication with athletes in recent years and has repeatedly encouraged the tens of thousands of athletes who take part in UIPM Sports to use official channels – including the UIPM Athletes Committee, which is elected by athletes for athletes. Today’s letter is very welcome and without commenting on its contents, we can state with some confidence that positive outcomes will emerge from this communication.

For the protection and reassurance of the wider community, we also state that we are aware of some less constructive communication that has been detected lately across social media and some news outlets, where individuals – some of whom have little or no involvement with the sport – seem determined to undermine the progress made by the many working hard across the world to implement the changes needed to preserve the sport’s future.

Modern Pentathlon remains firmly on track for inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic programme with continued progress on the introduction of the new Obstacle discipline and demonstrations of improved governance, as confirmed by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) moving UIPM from Category 5 to Category 4 in the revenue-sharing structure which will provide additional funding to be reinvested into the future of the sport.