Modern Pentathlon: Fiiiive Goooold Meeedaallllls

[SnideAsides]

Swimming, fencing, riding, shooting, and running, but none of them in the actual venues the other relevant sports are using: they're using a small suburban pool for the swimming, the secondary basketball stadium for the fencing, and the rugby sevens stadium for everything else.

[katisha]

I think this wins the prize as the most bizarre event at the Olympics but, hey, it got Australia gold #8. Well done, Chloe Esposito! Earlier today they showed the last leg where the competitors run around a course and four times they stop and shoot a laser pistol at targets. Chloe must be a dead-eye great shot because that is how she got from 8th to 1st, hitting the targets with the best and fastest accuracy.

[BlackberryJam]

Anyone else having problem with the feed? I'm trying to replay and it keeps redirecting to Gold Zone.

[Ceindreadh]

Was watching the riding round earlier.  Is it wrong that I was cheering loudly whenever any of the riders knocked a fence?  :-)

(in my defence, there's an Irish competitor still in the mix and I was just happy that he got a clear round early on)

[Bill1978]

My earliest memory of this event was one of our seasoned competitors got busted failin a drug test for having too much caffeine in his body during the fencing part of the course. At the time the Australian media were having a conniption cause how could an Aussie fail a drug test, so I think that was about 1988. The sport soon joined the group of sports that I looked forward to getting frustrated that I never saw anything on TV when the Olympics were on. I got a renewed interest in the sport when Sydney hosted the games. Always hoping some athlete from Australia would surprise the world and go top 10.

I remember taping the overnight broadcast in 2012 hoping to that our broadcaster would show the combined event to see how Chloe Espositio would go. I was stoked that after fastforwarding through about 2 hours of 'crap' I got to watch her run and get our first ever Top 10 placing. At the time, I did my armchair critic thing and though if she could improve her fencing result she really could medal as her combined results were outstanding.

Fast Forward to 2016 and I was excited to see Chloe qualified again and this time she was bringing her brother along for the ride. After Chloe had improved her fencing results to being in the Top 20 I thought if she is as consistent this Olympics as she was last Olympics in the other events she could be in for a chance of getting a bronze. I woke up early Saturday (Australia time) to see her horse jumping effort and the fact that going into the final event she was 7th but 45 seconds behind. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our broadcaster was going to be showing the combined event live (thank God Bolt was scheduled to be running that early LOL).

I don't think I have screamed at the TV so much since Cathy Freeman was racing for Gold at Sydney. I was stoked when she moved into Bronze contention and I was absolutely estatic and nervous when she bolted off in first place after the final shooting. I was so nervous I couldn't sit down, I pretty much ran the final 800m with her in my lounge room while yelling words of encouragement at her and telling the commentator to shut up and not jinx her. Words can not describe how I felt when she crossed that line first, and there was definitely a lot of dust in the house that caused my eyes to water. Her calmness with shooting was incredible and apart from her ability to run well, the shooting is where she really won that gold. So calm. And I am thrilled that our broadcaster kept repeating her success. I usually complain about endless swimming repeats but I could watch Chloe win Gold all day.

Last night,  I went to bed wishing her brother Max all the best but I thought to myself while he will probably me inspired by his sister's win he is too far down in Fencing (29th) to make a difference. I wake up in time for the final event. Discover he is in 17th place and 45 seconds behind the leader (same as his sister). And of course because of Chloe's win, our broadcaster is showing his race live (Thanks Chloe). While Max didn't medal he did incredible to work his way up to 7th. First Australian male to place in the Top 10.  From what I can work out he actually finished 4th in the combined aspect and completed it faster than the 3 medallist. Just like his sister in London, his fencing result let him down. If he could have finished higher he probably could have medal. I do think being 19 nerves got to him. He hit the final shooting in 3rd place and I reckon thoughts of repeating his success got into his head as it took him 12 shots to get 5 hits.

So proud of what the Espositios siblings achieved at this Olympics and hopefully their success will improve Australian public's knowledge of the sport and raise its profile. It's also amazing to think the siblings achieved this with very little funding from the Government. According to a news article I read earlier in the week the sport of Modern Pentathlon only got $200 000 for the 4 years leading to this Olympics., compared to swimming's $39 million (the top money receiver). I am guessing the family would be quite satisfied that they made the right decision in moving to Budapest to help with training and access competitions. Hopefully we will see both Chloe and Max at Tokyo.

Chloe's gold is what I look forward to the most when watching the Olympics. Medals in sports Australia don't know really exist. Her gold and our Archery team's Bronze are my favourite medal achievements at this games. And I must confess I kinda felt like an expert yesterday explaining to my friends about how this sport works. Finally after years of supporting the 'weird' sports at the Olympics my obsession has paid off.

Edited August 21, 2016 by Bill1978
Cause Max wasn't the first Aussie man to go Top 10

[dcalley]

Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy.

See you later, maybe.