Individual, Men

David Svoboda of the Czech Republic won the gold medal in this event, despite ranking only 20th in the world prior to the London Olympics. Svoboda started his gold medal run in the opening event, épée fencing, when he won 26 of 35 bouts to lead with 1,024 points, equaling the best ever Olympic fencing performance in modern pentathlon, set at Beijing in 2008 by Russian Andrey Moiseyev. In the 200 freestyle swim, Svoboda dropped to second behind China’s Cao Zhongrong but regained the lead after the riding.

The run was new to the Olympics as the format had been changed after Beijing. While previously the modern pentathlon consisted of five events, in 2009 the shooting and cross-country running were combined into a single event similar to the Winter Olympic biathlon. Runners carried a laser pistol as they ran and stopped at three shooting stations during their run, at which they were required to produce five shots on target, with penalties for extra shots needed and time penalties. Svoboda started the combined run-shoot with a one-second lead over Cao. In the final kilometer, Cao briefly took the lead but Svoboda shot well and pulled back ahead to win his gold medal.

Bronze went to Hungarian Adam Marosi, ranked #3 in the world coming into the Olympics. World #1 Aleksandr Lesun of Russia was third entering the run-shoot but faltered, allowing Marosi to pass him, and dropped off the podium.