BERLIN (Reuters) - Modern pentathlon at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics will not be a rescue operation for the sport with obstacle running replacing horse riding, the new president of the sport's international federation (UIPM) Rob Stull said on Thursday.
The blend of fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running caused a furore at the 2021 Tokyo Games when a German coach struck a horse that refused a fence.
The sport was dropped from the initial list for the 2028 Los Angeles Games but reinstated after the governing UIPM decided the equestrian element would be replaced by obstacle racing after this year's Paris Olympics.
The change caused ructions, with some athletes unhappy but the sport hopes to appeal to a larger, younger and more diverse audience already sold on popular obstacle course franchises.
"Absolutely it is not a rescue operation," Stull, who was elected to the post last week and succeeded long-time president Klaus Schormann, told a group of international reporters.
"I don't look at our sport defensively. We have had challenges and we have acknowledged that. So I don't view it from a defensive mode. It is an offensive action in building and growing the sport," Stull, a former Olympian who competed in both pentathlon and fencing at the Games, said.
In Paris the horses went out in style -- saddled up for one last Olympic ride in the gardens of the Chateau de Versailles, palatial home of the 17th century 'Sun King' Louis XIV.
The change for Los Angeles is not the first for the sport since its debut in 1912, with firearms and swords having been replaced by laser pistols and electric epees among others.
"Modern pentathlon is five disciplines and the new one is 20% of the sport. What I am hoping to see in Los Angeles is what we saw in Paris but elevated," Stull said.
"Paris was a huge success for modern pentathlon. The bar has been set and raised for modern pentathlon."
The venue for the sport's competition at the Los Angeles Games has not yet been determined with Stull saying it needs to be finalised sooner rather than later.
"We have a list of things that have some urgency. Establishing the venues is on that list," he said. "I had some ideas that are exciting. I want to try hard for that iconic venue. It was a campaign promise.
"Modern pentathlon because of its nature, any stadium you bring we can fill it," he said.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
