The year 2012 is already a milestone in the history of Modern Pentathlon. The sport is completing 100 years of Olympic Games, a trajectory that began at Stockholm 1912 and will culminate with an edition filled with expectations for London in the coming month of July. Changes in the competition format and a likely third victory in a row of Russian Andrei Moiseev have helped it to become one of the first five sports with tickets sold out.

The honour and responsibility of leading such a special moment lie with German Klaus Schormann, who has been heading the International Modern Pentathlon Union since 1993. Under his management, a new competition module was implemented which was more modern, sustainable and friendly for TV broadcast, crucial to expand the frontiers and promote Pentathlon. Shooting is no longer the first event to be disputed and has joined Running in a combined event – the last and decisive event of the sport. The laser pistol was the other new innovation of this Olympic cycle.

This interview was made in March during the World Cup leg held in Rio de Janeiro, stage of the 2016 Games. Schormann looks at the changes in Modern Pentathlon and speaks about the project to encourage the sport at schools. He also shows he is excited that the Olympic Games are being held in South America for the first time. Check it out:

What does Rio’s selection as host city of the 2016 Games mean?

I don’t think any of the highest ranking members of the Olympic Movement would say “we have made the wrong decision”. Of course the other applicant cities must have been disappointed for a moment, but now they are also focusing on 2016. Rio being selected to host the Games was an important step towards the development and enhancement of the Olympic Movement in South America. Not only Pentathlon but also several other important sports competitions are being increasingly organised in different countries, Brazil included. There has also been a rise in the number of conferences, meetings and seminars. It all boils down to that development process.

What about Modern Pentathlon in particular?

To us from Pentathlon this is quite a challenge as we want to develop the sport more intensely. Now we are able to do that. The World Junior Championship was in Buenos Aires last year. This year we’ve had a Congress in Buenos Aires and now we have a strong leg of the World Cup in Rio. Nations like Chile and Uruguay, or any other nations, will not always go to Europe. They are coming here for a competition in their own continent. I think this is an excellent way to promote all Olympic sports. Your society will be able to meet many other Olympic sports besides Football (laughs). You are the country of sports, your people love practicing sports. By supporting the candidature of Rio de Janeiro, the IOC made a wonderful and much needed decision.

Modern Pentathlon will be disputed in this place in 2016. What do you think of the space available for that?

It is a venue in development which is going to be set up especially for the Olympic Games. It is a military area where many more people will be living in the future. A Modern Pentathlon complex will be built, where other sports competitions, such as Fencing, will be held. But essentially this is a cluster of Pentathlon disciplines . We’ve also got Shooting, for example. This has been projected to be a multisport complex. There are some existing venues but others are under way, so that to Rio de Janeiro, this huge city, this is a new set, a new large area where you will give residents the opportunity to do sports here. And not only Football.

Deodoro is known as the city in Rio with the highest concentration of youth. How can you encourage the youngest ones to practice Modern Pentathlon?

We have a non-Olympic sport called Biathlon. Recently, we have established the laser pistol at Pentathlon. That means children can shoot. It is safe, it is a new Shooting practice. Now we are more apt to catch the attention of the youth, and this will happen through new technologies. They like computers and new technology tools. Now Pentathlon is delivering a really new technology. We have been to schools and clubs in Brazil, with the Brazilian Pentathlon Federation. They can offer a combination of Physical Education, Running and Swimming. After that there is Shooting and Fencing. You build a pyramid. You leave a simple basis and reach the five top sports. This is a great and real challenge, to focus on schools, children or key activities through Physical Education.

Modern Pentathlon has undergone significant changes to its rules with the advent of the combined event (Shooting and Running in the same event) and the laser pistol as from 2009. What is your opinion about the first years of this process?

The point is when I made my presentation at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in 2002, in the city of Mexico, I promised the IOC members that in a few years we would develop our sport and make it a modern product. The combined event has been a great step for us. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy for any athletes, as it was something very new in their training. The next step was the laser pistol. This gives the media and TV the opportunity to show much more of our sport. You can place the camera in front of the athlete, behind the target, and you focus on the face, expression or eyes of the athlete while he shoots.

You bring sport to the media and the people through this new system. Security is not around, blocking the athletes, so that you can only see and record them from behind. Now you can view it from all sides. In London, for example, the spectators will be opposite the athletes during the Shooting event. You’ll be able to take a picture of the athletes faces while they are shooting! This is something we’ve had to change to make it friendlier to the media. Before, the atmosphere was the athlete seen from the back, with the Shooting stand in silence. “No noise, please”. And now it’s thrilling. This is a great step we have taken.

Tell us about your expectations for the end of this Olympic cycle of innovations in London 2012.

The rules first appeared internationally at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. That was the youth’s first time and you could see they loved it. London 2012 will be Pentathlon’s first summer Olympic Games. This is a great step to what we’ve done and to what we have to do to show we are a Modern Pentathlon. We are going to underline the word ‘modern’. It is something really new.

The most traditional countries in Modern Pentathlon are European. How can you take the sport to regions where it is not well-known?

We are very determined to place the legs of the World Cup in all continents, as well as the World Cup finals and the junior championships. This is a part of it. Our international calendar is all scattered. Right now, it is not in Australia for financial reasons of the Australian Federation, but it is basically in the other parts of the world. We’ve had World Championships in China, in Argentina. It is not only in Europe. Next year’s World Championship will be in Taipei. It goes from one large country to another. It is very important to take the large competitions everywhere, take them to developing countries, so that they are motivated and know they are with us at the table, taking bites of the same size. This is my work as president: to bring balance and harmony around the globe and be able to say we are a global player in the Olympic Movement.

Lastly, we can watch a special moment in London, when Modern Pentathlon completes 100 years in the Olympic programme. Russian Andrey Moiseev may become the first Olympic three times champion at the individual event and in a row. How can this affect the sport?

Russian has four athletes who have been qualified and there are only two spots. Now, the Russian Federation has to decide who they are going to send to the Games. Lesun, Moiseev, Frolov? No one knows. But he has won two Olympic Games. He won the World Championship in 2011. In Charlotte (USA), at the first leg of the World Cup this year he did not qualify for the finals. Let’s wait and see what the other legs will be like. The Russians will make a big decision but it would be quite special if he made it to the Games. He is a winner, a brilliant winner. If he wins for the third time, that will be historic to our sport.