Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2022: Modern Pentathlon athlete quota goes up to 64

The global UIPM Sports community is celebrating after the athlete quota for Modern Pentathlon at the Youth Olympic Games was increased by 33%.

The rise from 48 to 64 means that more young athletes than ever before will be able to experience the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar (SEN) when it goes to Africa for the first time.

The 2022 YOG Modern Pentathlon will be historic for a third reason as the New Tetrathlon format approved by the UIPM Executive Board in September 2019 will be introduced. A framework and detailed rules for the new format are currently being developed by a dedicated working group.

Modern Pentathlon has featured at every YOG since its inception in 2010 in Singapore, and now 32 female and 32 male athletes will qualify to compete in the individual competitions and Mixed Relay.

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “Modern Pentathlon has been on the programme for the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (2010), Nanjing (2014) and Buenos Aires (2018), and we saw in Buenos Aires that the sport made an incredible contribution to the Games with spectators in a full stadium enjoying the dramatic spectacle of our sport.

“We are very pleased, therefore, that the IOC Executive Board has granted our application for a larger athlete quota. For the first Olympic Games in Africa, in Dakar 2022, we will present a New Tetrathlon format that I know will make the sport even more attractive to audiences and athletes.

“I am also certain that this news will stimulate more of UIPM’s national member federations to focus on their development programmes and try to give young athletes every opportunity to enjoy the Youth Olympic Games experience.”

UIPM’s New Tetrathlon Working Group (NTWG) and New Pentathlon Working Group (NPWG) will both meet on January 24/25 in Frankfurt (GER) to refine proposals to be presented to the UIPM Executive Board at its meeting on January 30/31 at Olympic House in Lausanne (SUI).