The Australian Alex Watson wants to take power in the World Federation of Modern Pentathletes. He sharply attacked the German President Klaus Schormann. He was “incompetent” and “mendacious” and absolutely had to resign.
Accompanied by serious allegations against the incumbent German President Klaus Schormann, the Australian Alex Watson has announced his candidacy for the presidency of the World Modern Pentathlon Federation (UIPM). “Klaus Schormann should resign honorably,” said the Australian at a press conference on Monday, “and if he doesn’t, he should be voted out.” Among other things, he called the leadership of the UIPM “incompetent” and “mendacious”.
Watson’s motivation is based not least on the abolition of the show jumping discipline. After the scandalous scenes at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, when the German pentathlete Annika Schleu could not get an overwhelmed horse under control, the UIPM decided to introduce a so-called “Obstacle Race” based on the TV show “Ninja Warrior” instead. The change received 82 percent approval at last year’s UIPM Congress.
“It was a democratic process,” Schormann emphasized in an interview, contradicting the claim of British Olympic champion Joe Choong, who explained alongside Watson that a large majority of athletes wanted to keep show jumping. In fact, according to Schormann, the change is essential for the modern pentathlon to remain Olympic beyond Paris 2024. A “new generation of athletes” will now grow up.
But Watson, 65, a three-time Olympian and director of competitions at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, believes the sport has been ” thrown into chaos” and its future at the Olympics in jeopardy. Schormann replied that the UIPM is now enabling “people all over the world” to practice the sport and thus save it. Pierre de Coubertin, the inventor of the modern pentathlon, would not have “closed himself off to the zeitgeist”.
Choong and Watson nevertheless accuse Schormann of acting without involving the athletes. “This process is unacceptable,” said Choong. “We athletes should be allowed to have a say. It breaks my heart that it isn’t.” The “chaotic mismanagement of the past two decades” led to the sport being removed from the Olympic program after 2024 because the UIPM had failed to “reform the equestrian discipline”.
Schormann has been President of the UIPM since 1993. Watson accused him of having “lost the athletes’ trust” and was “no longer tenable” – but not just because of the discussion about show jumping. “It goes much deeper. It’s about ethics and transparency and how the UIPM has run the sport over a long period of time.” Schormann, said Watson, “abuses his power” and puts athletes and associations under pressure with extortionate methods.
The allegations made him “not uneasy,” said Schormann, even if it was “sad” that “such things are being brought into the world.” He pointed out that he was elected until 2024 and at the upcoming UIPM Congress on 12/13. There are no elections in November anyway. Even Watson admitted that Schormann’s ouster was a “long shot”. Its influence on the national associations is too great: “Many are afraid to show themselves.”
