DEI is crucial and creating smooth pathways is the key, says UIPM Secretary General

The governing body of Modern Pentathlon is undergoing a governance transformation with a new UIPM President in Rob Stull OLY, four new Vice Presidents and many newcomers to the Executive Board as 13 mostly long-serving Members finish their tenure.

UIPM’s flagship sport has been entirely gender-equal on the field of play since Sydney 2000, when a Women’s Modern Pentathlon was first included in the Olympic Games programme.

Secretary General Fang admitted that work remained to be done to embed this equity across the UIPM Sports movement, but she said that signs of progress in coaching and judging were welcome while the 73rd UIPM Congress had voted for change with an improved female proportion of 25% on the Executive Board, with some vacancies still to be filled.

Speaking during Host City 2024 in Glasgow (GBR), Shiny Fang said: “Like many International Federations, change takes time to implement, but at UIPM we now see a lot more diversity in our governance structure and we hope to become more and more representative as the years go by. The key is to have smooth pathways.

“Our movement made a big decision to replace Riding with Obstacle, which is now part of Modern Pentathlon and the new format will be an exciting feature of the Olympic Games programme in Los Angeles in 2028. The change is designed to make our sport more accessible to people from all parts of the world, regardless of their social background.

“We are committed to creating a fully inclusive multisport movement where everybody has a chance to be involved.”