The 1912 Summer Olympics games in Stockholm, Sweden were the first to feature the modern pentathlon.
In addition to serving in World War I as tank-driving Colonel and in World War II as a badass General who wore a Colt .45 revolver on his hip, George S. Patton was an early American modern pentathlete. He finished 4th in fencing and 6th in equestrian but got 20th place in shooting, a true cavalry man. He finished the modern pentathlon in 5th place.
This is from the official record of the 1912 Olympics: Bergvall, Erik (ed.) (1913). Adams-Ray, Edward (trans.).. ed. The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.
Missing from the official record is Jim Thorpe, Patton’s teammate who won the gold in the pentathlon and decathlon. He was stripped of the medals after the games because he had played professional baseball in the Eastern Carolina League for Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1909 and 1910, receiving $2 a game and $35 a week. With the advent of the Dream Team in basketball (1992), professionalism is no longer an impediment to winning Gold at the Olympics.
