Modern pentathlon tore itself apart and alienated its biggest stars to try to stay in the Olympics. It's probably getting kicked out anyway.

• Modern pentathlon is close to being expelled from the Olympics after removing its horseriding discipline.
• The sport was not named on the preliminary list for Los Angeles 2028 earlier in December.
• "It's been a massive shock to the pentathlon community," Olympic champion Joe Choong told Insider. 

Modern pentathlon is now close to being completely removed from the Olympics after the sport's authorities ignored calls from its athletes not to remove horse riding as one of its five disciplines.

The sport was thrown into chaos at the Tokyo Games when a German coach was ejected from the Games for punching a horse which had been refusing to jump during the show jumping portion of the event.

Following backlash from animal welfare groups and revelations about the sport's history of neglecting animal welfare, modern pentathlon's governing body, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), opted to remove horse riding from the sport from 2024 onwards and replace it with a different, as yet undecided, discipline.

Athletes hit out at the decision, with over 600 signing a motion of no confidence against the UIPM's leadership, insisting that removing riding without naming a suitable replacement discipline could result in the sport losing its Olympic status. 

The UIPM did not heed the warnings and proceeded. Early in the December this stance resulted in modern pentathlon being cut from the preliminary list of sports to be included at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles earlier this month.

According to Yahoo, the UIPM was told by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it must finalize a proposal for the sport's new look before it can be accepted.

"Modern Pentathlon must finalize its proposal for the replacement of horse riding and demonstrate a significant reduction in cost and complexity and show improvements in safety, accessibility, universality and appeal for youth," said IOC president Thomas Bach.

The sport's athletes are furious with authorities

Joe Choong, who won gold in the men's pentathlon event in Tokyo, has now hit out at the UIPM, accusing it of ignoring the warnings from athletes.

"Clearly it's been a massive shock to the pentathlon community that we've been excluded from the initial LA28 programme," Choong told Insider.

"The athletes warned the UIPM that proposing four sports and one unknown one to the IOC, rather than fixing the current problems, was never going to be accepted, and we were right.

"Despite the UIPM's insistence that it was the right course of action, we've been put in the holding box and now have a very uphill battle to meet the inclusion criteria we've been set."

Choong also said in an athletes' meeting with the IOC, they were told that modern pentathlon has "struggled to meet broadcasting and engagement targets over repeated cycles" which he believes is indicative of the poor way in which the sport is run.

The UIPM has been headed by the same man, Dr. Klaus Schormann, for the past 29 years. Schormann — who a number of modern pentathletes have criticized in interviews with Insider — was re-elected for an eighth term as president in an unopposed election in November.

"The direction our sport has been led over the last 28 years has failed to excite new audiences and expand the sport," Choong continued. 

"Now, we are closer to Olympic exclusion than we ever have been before. It makes me wonder what the outcome would have been if the sport had tried to fix our problems rather than just bury our heads in the sand and just get rid of them.

"I can't say for certain that proposing a reformed riding format would have left us with a better outcome from the IOC, but considering how obvious the result of this decision was going to be, it makes you question whether the leadership of our sport is the right one to lead us back into Olympic inclusion."

On Wednesday, the UIPM announced that it had appointed "four of the world's leading media and marketing executives" to a working group which will help decide modern pentathlon's new discipline.

It called the appointment of the executives "a powerful sign of intent as UIPM seeks to rise to the challenge set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reform Modern Pentathlon for inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games."