Through the years Baron Pierre de Coubertin dreamed to test "a man's moral qualities as much as his physical resources and skills, producing thereby the ideal, complete athlete." Over 100 years later, several male and female Olympians have upheld that ideal image.

The modern pentathlon consists of five disciplines (from the Greek word pente) that will be contested on a single day: shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian show jumping and running.