The Modern Pentathlon consists of five different events that take place over a single day: fencing, swimming, riding, shooting and running (combined event). The winner is the first athlete to cross the finish line of the running portion of the event. 

The five events:

Fencing

Fencing in the Modern Pentathlon consists of a series of matches where athletes compete with one another. Each match lasts about a minute, or long enough for one of the athletes to be hit. A round may last just a few seconds. The athlete wins when he hits any part of his opponent’s body. If in one minute there is not a single hit, both pentathletes lose. Penalties apply if a fencer does something considered dangerous, goes off the designated fencing mat or turns his back on his opponent.

Winning 70% of bouts corresponds to 1,000 points. Each win, above or below the 70% mark is worth specific points according to the number of competing athletes:

22-23 wins +/-40 points
24-26 wins +/-36 points
27-29 wins +/-32 points
30-33 wins +/-28 points
34-39 wins +/-24 points

For instance: In a competition with 36 athletes, each athlete will have 35 matches. So, 25 wins total the 70% mark (1,000 points).  Therefore, 23 victories are worth 952 points in the Pentathlon contest.

Swimming

In the swimming competition, athletes swim the 200 freestyle against the clock. It is an event in which only time matters. A time of 2:30 minutes for men and 2:40 for women award 1,000 points in the Pentathlon competition. Every 0.33 seconds below or above these marks add or subtract 4 points. Therefore, every second is equivalent to 12 more or less points. Additionally, if the athlete has a false start or does not touch the end of the pool upon turning, he will be penalized in 40 points.

Example:

A time of 2:32.8 corresponds to 968 points in the men’s pentathlon and 1,088 points in the women’s.

For being a sport in which it is very difficult to obtain excellent results after a certain age, most pentathletes are very good swimmers.

Riding

Pentathletes must ride horses they do not know over 350 to 450-meter courses with 12 hurdles of at most 1.20 meters, being one single and one triple, totalizing 15 jumps. The shortest course should be completed in 1 minute and the longer course in 1 minute and 17 seconds. Completing the course once with no penalties awards the athlete 1,200 points in the competition. Each mistake results in lost points. Athletes and coaches know the horse before the competition during a jump test. However the pentathlete only gets to know his horse after the draw that is done before the warm-up. The athlete who was best placed in the two previous events is the first to draw his horse, and so on. The rider is allowed 20 minutes to know his horse during warm-up. Two falls result in the interruption of the course and the rider loses 300 points.

Points:

Each fall will result in a 28-point loss and every time the horse refuses to jump or disobeys the rider, this results in a 40-point loss. If the hurdle is knocked down, the rider will lose 60 points. After the horse refuses to jump the hurdle twice, each extra hurdle will result in a 200-point loss. Falling off the horse results in a 40-point loss. Each second above the allowed time results in a loss of 4 points. The maximum delay allowed is 75 seconds. If the athlete is slower than this, 240 points will be lost and 80 more points will be lost for every hurdle that is not jumped.

Shooting/ Running (Combined Event)