Modern pentathlon has been an Olympic sport since 1912 featuring five events – fencing, swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running. The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said it was “fully committed” to the responsible use of horses in sport.

In the ancient Greek Olympics, the pentathlon included a race the length of the stadium (about 183 metres [200 yards]), the long jump, the discus throw, the javelin throw, and a wrestling match between the two athletes who performed best in the previous four events.

The five events in the modern pentathlon—fencing, swimming, horse riding, pistol shooting, and running—were chosen to reflect skills that cavalry soldiers of the 19th-century ought to possess and refine.

It is simply a smaller version of the decathlon or a heptathlon. For girls, it is 100 m high hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump, and an 800 m run.

is that heptathlon is (athletics) an athletic contest comprising seven events; contested mostly by women, for whom this is an olympic sport while pentathlon is an ancient athletics discipline, featuring five events: stadion, wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus.

The 1912 Summer Olympics saw the introduction of two new types of the pentathlon. The first was the classic pentathlon, an athletics competition which was a variation on the Ancient Olympic pentathlon, comprising the long jump, javelin throw, 200 metres, discus throw, and a 1500 metres race.

1912
The Modern Pentathlon Modern Pentathlon was introduced at the 5th Olympiad in Stockholm (SWE) 1912, comprising the contemporary sports of pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding and running, which embraced the spirit of its ancient counterpart.

Introduced at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, modern pentathlon consists of five sports (fencing, swimming, riding, shooting, running) all contested on the same day.

Although he said about sport: “For every man, woman and child, it offers an opportunity for self-improvement,” he openly opposed the participation of women in elite track and field events throughout his life. Nevertheless, the participation of women in the Olympic Games grew six-fold under Coubertin’s presidency.

A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. With the revival of the Olympic Games in the modern era, the pentathlon returned in two formats. The athletics pentathlon was a modern variation on the original events, with a competition over five track and field events.

Pierre de Coubertin
The modern pentathlon, invented by Pierre de Coubertin (father of the Modern Olympics), was a variation on the military aspect of the Ancient pentathlon. It focused on the skills required by a late-19th-century soldier, with competitions in shooting, swimming, fencing, equestrianism, and cross country running.