1948 Winter Olympics / Winter Pentathlon
At the VI. Olympic Winter Games of 1948 in St. Moritz was the only time a competition in Winter Pentathlon as a demonstration competition or demonstration competition held.
Winter pentathlon
The competition consisted of the disciplines of 10 km cross-country skiing , pistol shooting with 4 × 5 shots at 25 m, downhill skiing , epee fencing and cross-country skiing in the snow and was considered the winter equivalent of the modern pentathlon , which was held on five consecutive days. The rating was based on place numbers. The winner of each discipline received one point, the other athletes the points corresponding to their number of places. If a starter could not finish a discipline, he was rated last in this sub-competition with the number of points that corresponded to the number of starters in this discipline. The points of the discipline evaluations were added up and the athlete with the fewest points declared the winner.
Participant field and course
The field of participants comprised only fourteen athletes, eleven of them were able to finish the competition. In the third discipline, the downhill race, there were serious accidents and three starters were no longer able to participate in fencing and riding. Although the remaining athletes in the competition, the Austrian Griessler and the Swiss Schriber, had to give up on the final cross-country ride in the snow and were each rated with eleven points, they were still able to place in the overall ranking.
Course of the competition
The pentathlon began on January 31 immediately after the 18 km cross-country skiing, with 13 athletes taking to the 10 km cross-country course. The English major Legart had to resign due to illness. The first starter was Gustaf Lindh, and if he hadn't had the handicap of the first starter, he would have been the winner - all 4 Swedes shared the first 4 places. It was not a Finn or a Swiss who came in fifth (as expected), but Griessler (AUT). The Swiss ran evenly, but clearly lagged behind the northerners in terms of speed. The English, whose training deficit was large, could not keep up with the times of the other participants.
Shooting started on Sunday morning, February 1st. Towards the end of the first group of five, the fog was quite thick, which weighed on the results. Lindh was not impressed by this, he completed his series in calm safety and got 194 points. It was not until after noon that it was Egnell and Grut's turn, who with 193 and 191 points were just short of their comrade's mark. The accident happened later through Bertil Haase, in which a shot was fired while handling the weapon and the St. Moritz policeman named Barth, who was in control and who was standing behind his stand, hit a thigh. The medical service went well, the injured man could be taken straight to the hospital. Quietly, Haase gave up his last pass and scored 20 hits and 186 points.
With the Swiss, Schriber started with a miss in the 2nd series, which cost him (and Vincenzo Somazzi) several ranking points. Rumpf also started weakly, Vollmeier shot bravely, but only got a few tens.
The final part was riding on February 4th. Again the Swedes were in a class of their own. In fairly warm weather, only 11 participants took up the competition on the 3,000 m steeple track with around 20 obstacles. Of the Swiss, Captain Schriber had to give up because the snaffle of his bridle had torn as a result of a fall; also Lt. Hull fell, but managed to reach its destination. In the classification, Lindh was in 8: 30.8 ahead of Grut in 8: 51.8 (both received 100 points) and Allhusen in 9: 03.0 with 98.5 points. Haase 8: 45.0 (92 P), Somazzi 9: 18.8 (90.5 P), Legart 9: 28.6 (85.5 P), Walker 9: 48.2 (72.5 P) followed ), Willoughby 9: 50.6 (66.5), hull 10: 31.4 (43 P). Grießer also dropped out.
Admission to the Olympic program
As with the military patrol, the field of participants in the Winter Pentathlon was made up exclusively of military personnel. The Winter Pentathlon fought in direct competition with the military patrol run for inclusion in the official program of the Winter Olympics, but was unable to convince either the officials or the public and was never held in this form again. The IOC dropped all plans for a modified Winter Pentathlon.
Results
| space | country | athlete | Cross-country skiing | shoot | Departure | fencing | horse riding | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SWE | Gustaf Lindh , Fourier | 2 | 1 | 6th | 4th | 1 | 14th |
| 2 | SWE | William Grut , cdt. | 3 | 3 | 4th | 3 | 2 | 15th |
| 3 | SWE | Bertil Haase , Fourier | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6th | 4th | 17th |
| 4th | SUI | Vincenzo Somazzi , plt. | 8th | 9 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 25th |
| 5 | SUI | Hans Rumpf , Lt. | 9 | 4th | 3 | 1 | 9 | 26th |
| 6th | GBR | Derek Allhusen , maj. | 11 | 8th | 11 | 11 | 3 | 44 |
| 7th | AUT | Peter Grießler, sdt. | 5 | 12 | 7th | 10 | 11 | 45 |
| 8th | SUI | Schriber, cdt. | 10 | 10 | 10 | 4th | 11 | 45 |
| 9 | GBR | Walker, cdt. | 12 | 13 | 9 | 6th | 7th | 47 |
| 10 | GBR | Charles Percy Legard , Maj. | 14th | 11 | 8th | 9 | 6th | 48 |
| 11 | GBR | Maurice Willoughby , Maj. | 13 | 14th | 13 | 6th | 8th | 54 |
| 12 | SWE | Claes Egnell , cdt. | 4th | 2 | 5 | DNF | DNF | DNF |
| 13 | FIN | Viktor Platan , cdt. | 6th | 7th | 12 | DNF | DNF | DNF |
| 14th | SUI | J. Vollmeier, cdt. | 7th | 6th | 14th | DNF | DNF | DNF |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Report Général sur les V es Jeux Olympiques d'hiver St-Moritz 1948, pages 72–74 (PDF, French; 3.9 MB)
- ↑ «The cross-country skiing of the pentathlon»; “Sport Zürich”, No. 14 of January 31, 1948, p. 2.
- ↑ "Triple Sweden victory in pentathlon shooting"; “Sport Zürich”, No. 15 of February 2, 1948, p. 3.
- ↑ «The pentathletes finish with a riding test»; “Sport Zürich”, No. 15 of February 5, 1948, p. 6.
