There’s been a strange little revolution brewing over the last few years in the world of modern pentathlon—the weirdest, most expensive, and least-watched event of the entire Summer Olympic Games catalogue. The sport (based around a very early 20th century understanding of the skills of a modern soldier, including sword fighting, swimming, running, and firing what were later turned into laser-based guns) ran into some PR problems back at the 2020 Games, when participants complained that the fifth event, equestrian show-jumping, introduced an unwelcome random element to the sport. (Your event’s reputation is not doing great, modern-popularity wise, when it generates headlines about a pissed-off coach reportedly punching a horse.) All of which somehow trickled down to today, when Variety reports that Japanese TV series Ninja Warrior is now an official part of the Summer Olympic Games.
It’s like this: Shortly after the 2020 Games, the UIPM—the governing body that oversees modern pentathlon—decided enough was enough with the horses, which nobody seemed to like watching, massively raised the cost for new athletes to enter the sport, and were distressingly prone to getting punched. So they did some tests, and then took an official vote, deciding that show-jumping would be replaced with an obstacle course run so clearly modeled on long-running Japanese reality competition show Sasuke/Ninja Warrior that the UIPM went ahead and brought in the show’s producers to consult on building their courses. Over protests from a pretty decent chunk of current modern pentathletes—who had, it’s worth noting, invested a lot of both time and money in getting good at jumping over stuff on horses, only for all that work to be rendered moot in favor of high-impact monkeybars—the rule changes went forward in the sport’s junior competitions a couple of years ago, with a plan to officially roll it out for adults at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
All of which brings us back to today, when the UIPM announced that not only would the 2028 Olympics version of modern pentathlon feature the obstacle runs, but that it would officially be licensed from Japanese Ninja Warrior producer TBS (not to be confused with the American TV network of the same name), which is allowing its intellectual property to be used for the events’ obstacle designs. “What an incredible honor it is for our Federation to be working closely with TBS, the broadcaster that gave Ninja Warrior to the world,” UIPM president Rob Stull said of the deal. “Ahead of LA28, this agreement represents a wonderful and unique coming together of primetime entertainment and Olympic sports culture.”
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