Modern pentathlon votes to ditch horse riding after Tokyo Olympic turmoil

Sport in spotlight after German coach punched horse in Tokyo

Ireland’s Natalya Coyle on a horse refusing to jump during the Tokyo Games. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

It is a sport originally conceived by the founder of the modern Olympics to help cavalry riders develop the skills needed to survive behind enemy lines. But after 109 years, modern pentathlon’s governing body has secretly voted to remove horse riding and replace it with cycling, the Guardian can reveal.

Multiple sources have said that the decision was taken by the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne’s executive board in recent days, and was hastened by the distressing scenes at the Tokyo Olympics when a horse was punched by a German coach after refusing to jump a fence.