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≡ MEET FARIDA KHALIL ≡
Modern Pentathlon has been one of the smallest Olympic sports since it was introduced at the Stockholm Games of 1912. It has barely survived multiple reviews to take it off of the Olympic program, including for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
It was essentially ordered by the International Olympic Committee to drop equestrian from its event program after a German coach hit a horse in anger at the Tokyo 2020 Games; eventually, obstacle course was substituted, with the hope that it would draw more interest.
If American sports fans can recall anything about pentathlon at all, it might be of an athlete who placed fifth in the first time it was in the Games, in 1912: George S. Patton, later to be a historic U.S. World War II general.
And the sport was so lightly thought of for 2028, the IOC shaved its total athlete quota from 76 to 68, to allow more participants in Sport Climbing. Only surfing is smaller.
Now, however, the sport may have a different issue. How to handle a possibly transformational athlete, who is 14 years old.
Yes, 14.
It’s Egypt’s Farida Khalil.
This isn’t an accident. Like other nations, for example South Korea in archery, Egypt found resources to concentrate in this sport, well-suited for members of its armed forces – the sport was invented to feature skills a 1910s solider would use – and has become a powerhouse. At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, two Egyptian men made the final and Ahmed El-Gendy moved up from third at the Tokyo 2020 Games and won the Paris gold, over Taishu Sato (JPN) and Giorgio Malan (ITA). Malak Ismail made the women’s final, and finished 12th.
At the 2023 World Championships, Mohanad Shaban won the men’s bronze, and Egypt won the men’s Team gold, men’s Relay, women’s Relay and mixed Relay, and led the medal table with four golds and five total.
But Khalil is different. In her first season as a senior-level competitor:
● World Cup I: On home turf in Cairo (EGY) in late February, Khalil dominated the women’s competition, winning by 19 seconds in the final event – the Laser Run – and scoring 1,464 points, winning the new obstacle course event and swimming.
● World Cup II: In Budapest (HUN) in April, Khalil led the qualifying and led her semifinal, then started the Laser Run in first place with a three-second lead. But Paris Olympic champ – and home favorite – Michelle Gulyas passed her and won by 15 seconds, scoring a world-record – with obstacle – 1,476 to 1,462 for Khalil.
● World Cup III: Now in Pazardzhik (BUL), Khalil again led the qualifying, led her semifinal and won the obstacle and swimming to forge a 23-second lead in the Laser Run and she was not going to be stopped.
Despite being way in front, she had the eighth-fastest Laser Run, winning by 19 seconds, and finished with a world-record total of 1,485 points, surpassing Gulyas’ total from Budapest. Teammate Ismail won the bronze.
Said the winner and new world-record holder:
“I am very happy about this. I was very upset that I got the silver medal in Budapest, but I came here today and I felt that I would have to perform well in obstacle to get this gold.
“Even though the fencing round was not good, I told myself I needed to get a new world record in OCR to get the gold medal, and I did it three times in this competition, and also got the total world record today.
“I’m very happy and I want to thank my mom and my brothers, who did a good job in helping me get this gold medal.”
She’s off now until the World Cup Final from 4-6 July, back on home turf in Alexandria (EGY), and sure to draw a lot more attention than at the season opener in Cairo.
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Now, the question is, what will the UIPM do?
After three World Cups, Khalil appears to be a legit star in the making. Is this the transformational pentathlete that can move the federation beyond survival mode in the Olympic Movement?
Is Egypt’s rise to one of the sport’s top powers a story that can be (1) promoted and (2) replicated by other countries?
Can the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), with new president Rob Stull from the U.S., break through after 100 years of trying to just hold on to its Olympic status?
Khalil’s success at 14 – she was born in January, so she’ll be 17 in 2028 – is not the answer, but raises questions.
The primary one is, will the UIPM be up to the opportunity presented by Khalil … without ruining her in the process?
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