In Stockholm during a broiling summer heat wave in 1912, 26-year old George S. Patton and future general of WWII fame became the first American to compete in the Olympic Pentathlon. Accepted in May of 1912, he had less that two months to train for the games.
The Pentathlon, originally open only to military officers, was a five-course event based on the loose premise that the officer had to deliver a vital message by first proceeding on horseback, then fighting his way through enemy lines by using his handgun and sword, and then finishing his quest by swimming and running to his final destination.
Patton's first event, marksmanship with a pistol, was the most controversial. Most contestants used special .22 caliber handguns, which were highly accurate for target shooting but ineffective as a military weapon. Patton eschewed the .22 with disdain, as he thought that the spirit of the event required that the competitor use a firearm which would actually be a military service weapon. He thus shot the course with an Army .38 revolver, which left much larger holes in the target than a .22. Unfortunately, the judges could locate only 17 holes in the target out of the 20 rounds he fired. Patton claimed that the three missing rounds had gone through the huge jagged hole in the target created by his first 17 shots, but his arguments did not prevail. His resulting low shooting score cost him dearly in his overall rankings, and he would have probably won the Pentathlon had all 20 rounds been scored.
This type of problem was eventually eliminated in later Olympics by the use a moveable backdrop to make sure that every round was recorded. In 1994, air pistols were substituted for real firearms in the Olympic Pentathlon, and in 2012, the air guns were eliminated in favor of pistols which shoot only a beam of light. It is far easier to obtain higher scores with an unrealistic non-recoiling light-emitting pistol than with a genuine handgun, although, of course, all of the contestants share the same advantage.
Patton's second event was swimming for 300 meters. Patton loathed swimming but trained on board the ship taking him to the Olympics in a 20-foot canvas pool by tying a rope attached to the deck around his waist and swimming in place (aficionados of "The Simpsons" will recall the episode featuring "Tethered Swimming" as part of the school's PE program). During the Pentathlon, Patton placed 7th in the aquatic portion after he swam himself to exhaustion and had to be fished out of the water with a boat hook.
In 1996, the swimming portion was wimped down to 200 meters in order to make the event go faster.
Patton's next event was fencing, and he had to have a separate duel with each of the 28 other contestants. Although he finished 4th, he was the only person to defeat Jean de Mas Latrie of France. This was a landmark accomplishment, as the French were respected as the premier fencers and Latrie was considered the greatest fencer on earth at the time. Patton's fencing technique was to ignore any defensive moves and concentrate only on attacking--a system he utilized thirty years later when he was dealing with Germans.
In the current Olympics, although each fencer still faces each other contestant in individual duels, the duels cannot last more than one minute. If there is not a winner at the time, then both participants are credited with a loss. The equipment is set up so that a hit is registered when the sword touches the opponent's garb and an electric circuit is completed. In 1976, a Soviet duelist was disqualified when officials discovered that his epee had a button on it that he could press which would send out the electrical signal at will.
Patton's next course was the steeplechase. Patton was an excellent rider, but his favorite mount was injured, and he had to complete the course on a loaner horse. Nonetheless, he racked up a perfect score, but was still ranked 6th based on the amount of time it took him to do it.
In the current Olympic Pentathlon, all riders are assigned to unfamiliar horses--they do not bring their own anymore. They are given a little time to practice with them prior to the actual competition.
The final event was a 4,000 meter run through Swedish forest on one of the hottest days of the year. The contestants were not allowed to view the course in advance, and were dismayed to discover that much of the trail consisted of six inches of mud. Two runners fainted on the course, and one of them died. Patton received a large dose of opium prior to the race to help kill the anticipated pain (this was perfectly legal at the time), but his body gave out about 50 meters from the finish line. He walked the remaining distance and then collapsed unconscious. There was concern that he was going to die on the spot, but obviously he did not.
In the modern Pentathlon, the running has been reduced to 3,000 meters, and the shooting aspect has been combined into it (run 1,000 meters, shoot, run another 1,000 meters, shoot, etc.). Shooting with an elevated pulse and heavy breathing after running probably is a more realistic representation of combat conditions. However, the primary result and motivation for all of the rule changes is that the Pentathlon competition has been shrunk from five days to one, leaving additional broadcast time for coverage of the more popular events.
Patton registered to return to the 1916 Olympics, but later political events (i.e. WWI) made it impractical for him to do so.
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| PATTON (ON RIGHT) FENCING WITH LATRIE |
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