Athletics pentathlon

In the sport of athletics, pentathlons have taken various forms over the history of the sport, typically incorporating five track and field events. The only version of the event to remain at a high level of contemporary competition is the women's indoor pentathlon, which is present on the programme for the IAAF World Indoor Championships.

The athletics pentathlon featured on the Olympic Games schedule in two separate periods. During the early history of the event, an Olympic men's pentathlon was held and was present at the 1912, 1920 and 1924 games. The men's event was dropped, with the decathlon becoming the international standard. As women's events increasingly were contested internationally, the women's outdoor pentathlon was added and held for five straight editions from 1964 to 1980. The women's heptathlon superseded that event at international level in the early 1980s.

The International Women's Sports Federation was established in 1921 and the first reported women's pentathlon was in the 1922 Women's Olympiad in Monte Carlo. The events were 60 m, 300 m, high jump, two-hand javelin, and two-hand shot. In the late 1920s, the events were: shot and long jump on the first day, and 100 m, high jump, and javelin on the second day. The first world record recognised by the IAAF was set at the 1934 Women's World Games by Gisela Mauermayer. Prior to Olympic incorporation, the women's pentathlon featured at the British Athletics Championships USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the Soviet Athletics Championships from the 1950s onwards.

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